My Bondage and My Freedom | Page 5

These considerations caused me to hesitate, when first you kindly
urged me to prepare for publication a full account of my life as a slave,

and my life as a freeman.
Nevertheless, I see, with you, many reasons for regarding my
autobiography as exceptional in its character, and as being, in some
sense, naturally beyond the reach of those reproaches which honorable
and sensitive minds dislike to incur. It is not to illustrate any heroic
achievements of a man, but to vindicate a just and beneficent principle,
in its application to the whole human family, by letting in the light of
truth upon a system, esteemed by some as a blessing, and by others as a
curse and a crime. I agree with you, that this system is now at the bar of
public opinion--not only of this country, but of the whole civilized
world--for judgment. Its friends have made for it the usual plea--"not
guilty;" the case must, therefore, proceed. Any facts, either from slaves,
slaveholders, or by-standers, calculated to enlighten the public mind, by
revealing the true nature, character, and tendency of the slave system,
are in order, and can scarcely be innocently withheld.
I see, too, that there are special reasons why I should write my own
biography, in preference to employing another to do it. Not only is
slavery on trial, but unfortunately, the enslaved people are also on trial.
It is alleged, that they are, naturally, inferior; that they are so low in the
scale of humanity, and so utterly stupid, that they are unconscious of
their wrongs, and do not apprehend their rights. Looking, then, at your
request, from this stand-point, and wishing everything of which you
think me capable to go to the benefit of my afflicted people, I part with
my doubts and hesitation, and proceed to furnish you the desired
manuscript; hoping that you may be able to make such arrangements
for its publication as shall be best adapted to accomplish that good
which you so enthusiastically anticipate. FREDERICK DOUGLASS
<3>
There was little necessity for doubt and hesitation on the part of Mr.
Douglass, as to the propriety of his giving to the world a full account of
himself. A man who was born and brought up in slavery, a living
witness of its horrors; who often himself experienced its cruelties; and
who, despite the depressing influences surrounding his birth, youth and
manhood, has risen, from a dark and almost absolute obscurity, to the

distinguished position which he now occupies, might very well assume
the existence of a commendable curiosity, on the part of the public, to
know the facts of his remarkable history. EDITOR

INTRODUCTION
When a man raises himself from the lowest condition in society to the
highest, mankind pay him the tribute of their admiration; when he
accomplishes this elevation by native energy, guided by prudence and
wisdom, their admiration is increased; but when his course, onward and
upward, excellent in itself, furthermore proves a possible, what had
hitherto been regarded as an impossible, reform, then he becomes a
burning and a shining light, on which the aged may look with gladness,
the young with hope, and the down-trodden, as a representative of what
they may themselves become. To such a man, dear reader, it is my
privilege to introduce you.
The life of Frederick Douglass, recorded in the pages which follow, is
not merely an example of self-elevation under the most adverse
circumstances; it is, moreover, a noble vindication of the highest aims
of the American anti-slavery movement. The real object of that
movement is not only to disenthrall, it is, also, to bestow upon the
Negro the exercise of all those rights, from the possession of which he
has been so long debarred.
But this full recognition of the colored man to the right, and the entire
admission of the same to the full privileges, political, religious and
social, of manhood, requires powerful effort on the part of the
enthralled, as well as on the part of those who would disenthrall them.
The people at large must feel the conviction, as well as admit the
abstract logic, of human equality; <5>the Negro, for the first time in the
world's history, brought in full contact with high civilization, must
prove his title first to all that is demanded for him; in the teeth of
unequal chances, he must prove himself equal to the mass of those who
oppress him--therefore, absolutely superior to his apparent fate, and to
their relative ability. And it is most cheering to the friends of freedom,

today, that evidence of this equality is rapidly accumulating, not from
the ranks of the half- freed colored people of the free states, but from
the very depths of slavery itself; the indestructible equality of man to
man