A very desirable 1855 first edition of My Bondage and My Freedom by Fredierck Douglass. This, his second autobiography, marks a crucial ideological shift in Douglass’ thinking, and is marked by a much more advanced, politically radical, and psychologically complex critique of slavery.
Unlike his first autobiography, which was heavily steered by white Garrisonian abolitionists, this work reflects Douglass's break from William Lloyd Garrison. Here, Douglass rejects the idea that the United States Constitution is a pro-slavery document, instead embracing a political, activist approach to abolition. It’s tone is much more assertive. Rather than the more plaintive tone of the first, he is now indignant, and demands the recognition of black Americans, and demands their rights under the humanitarian claims of the Constitution. Further, for the introduction, he does not look to gain stature from the approval of New England abolitionists, but selects Dr. James M'Cune Smith, the first African American to hold a medical degree. By having a prominent Black intellectual introduce his work rather than a white patron, Douglass asserted absolute African American intellectual agency and literacy.
The work represents Douglass coming into his own. He in no way is against or unwilling to acknowledge the help of white abolitionist friends, but he is also here, for the first time in extended print, unwilling to allow them to narrate the future of black Americans through his voice.
Douglass, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. Part I. Life as a Slave. Part II. Life as a Freeman. By Frederick Douglass. With an Introduction by Dr. James M'Cune Smith. New York and Auburn. Miller, Orton & Mulligon. 1855. First Edition. 464pp.
A good - example, in original cloth, blank ffep lacking with mull exposed at front interior hinge. Neat repair to inner marginal tear on frontis, uneven handled and thumbed throughout. One gathering forward in the text block and tender. Published without the 4pp publisher's catalog as the example at Swann, 06.27.2024.
