{"product_id":"2940012263964","title":"MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM","description":"INTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen a man raises himself from the lowest condition in society to\u003cbr\u003ethe highest, mankind pay him the tribute of their admiration; when he\u003cbr\u003eaccomplishes this elevation by native energy, guided by prudence and\u003cbr\u003ewisdom, their admiration is increased; but when his course, onward and\u003cbr\u003eupward, excellent in itself, furthermore proves a possible, what had\u003cbr\u003ehitherto been regarded as an impossible, reform, then he becomes a\u003cbr\u003eburning and a shining light, on which the aged may look with gladness,\u003cbr\u003ethe young with hope, and the down-trodden, as a representative of\u003cbr\u003ewhat they may themselves become. To such a man, dear reader, it is my\u003cbr\u003eprivilege to introduce you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe life of Frederick Douglass, recorded in the pages which follow,\u003cbr\u003eis not merely an example of self-elevation under the most adverse\u003cbr\u003ecircumstances; it is, moreover, a noble vindication of the highest aims\u003cbr\u003eof the American anti-slavery movement. The real object of that movement\u003cbr\u003eis not only to disenthrall, it is, also, to bestow upon the Negro the\u003cbr\u003eexercise of all those rights, from the possession of which he has been\u003cbr\u003eso long debarred.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut this full recognition of the colored man to the right, and the\u003cbr\u003eentire admission of the same to the full privileges, political,\u003cbr\u003ereligious and social, of manhood, requires powerful effort on the part\u003cbr\u003eof the enthralled, as well as on the part of those who would disenthrall\u003cbr\u003ethem. The people at large must feel the conviction, as well as admit the\u003cbr\u003eabstract logic, of human equality;{5} the Negro, for the first time in\u003cbr\u003ethe world's history, brought in full contact with high civilization,\u003cbr\u003emust prove his title first to all that is demanded for him; in the teeth\u003cbr\u003eof unequal chances, he must prove himself equal to the mass of those who\u003cbr\u003eoppress him--therefore, absolutely superior to his apparent fate, and\u003cbr\u003eto their relative ability. And it is most cheering to the friends of\u003cbr\u003efreedom, today, that evidence of this equality is rapidly accumulating,\u003cbr\u003enot from the ranks of the half-freed colored people of the free states,\u003cbr\u003ebut from the very depths of slavery itself; the indestructible equality\u003cbr\u003eof man to man is demonstrated by the ease with which black men, scarce\u003cbr\u003eone remove from barbarism--if slavery can be honored with such a\u003cbr\u003edistinction--vault into the high places of the most advanced and\u003cbr\u003epainfully acquired civilization. Ward and Garnett, Wells Brown and\u003cbr\u003ePennington, Loguen and Douglass, are banners on the outer wall, under\u003cbr\u003ewhich abolition is fighting its most successful battles, because\u003cbr\u003ethey are living exemplars of the practicability of the most radical\u003cbr\u003eabolitionism; for, they were all of them born to the doom of slavery,\u003cbr\u003esome of them remained slaves until adult age, yet they all have not\u003cbr\u003eonly won equality to their white fellow citizens, in civil, religious,\u003cbr\u003epolitical and social rank, but they have also illustrated and adorned\u003cbr\u003eour common country by their genius, learning and eloquence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe characteristics whereby Mr. Douglass has won first rank among these\u003cbr\u003eremarkable men, and is still rising toward highest rank among living\u003cbr\u003eAmericans, are abundantly laid bare in the book before us. Like the\u003cbr\u003eautobiography of Hugh Miller, it carries us so far back into early\u003cbr\u003echildhood, as to throw light upon the question, \"when positive and\u003cbr\u003epersistent memory begins in the human being.\" And, like Hugh Miller, he\u003cbr\u003emust have been a shy old-fashioned child, occasionally oppressed by what\u003cbr\u003ehe could not well account for, peering and poking about among the layers\u003cbr\u003eof right and wrong, of tyrant and thrall, and the wonderfulness of that\u003cbr\u003ehopeless tide of things which brought power to one race, and unrequited\u003cbr\u003etoil to another, until, finally, he stumbled upon{6} his \"first-found\u003cbr\u003eAmmonite,\" hidden away down in the depths of his own nature, and which\u003cbr\u003erevealed to him the fact that liberty and right, for all men, were\u003cbr\u003eanterior to slavery and wrong. When his knowledge of the world was\u003cbr\u003ebounded by the visible horizon on Col. Lloyd's plantation, and while\u003cbr\u003eevery thing around him bore a fixed, iron stamp, as if it had always\u003cbr\u003ebeen so, this was, for one so young, a notable discovery.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47173328077040,"sku":"2940012263964","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012263964_p0.jpg?v=1763554083","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012263964","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}