A new edition of the African American masterpiece featuring critical
essays by Angela Y. Davis.
A masterpiece of African American literature, Frederick Douglass's
Narrative is the powerful story of an enslaved youth coming into
social and moral consciousness by disobeying his white slavemasters and
secretly teaching himself to read.
Achieving literacy emboldens Douglass to resist, escape and ultimately
achieve his freedom. After escaping slavery, Douglass became a leader in
the anti-slavery and women's rights movements, a bestselling author and
U.S. diplomat.
In this new critical edition, legendary activist and feminist scholar
Angela Davis sheds new light on the legacy of Frederick Douglass.
In two philosophical lectures originally delivered at UCLA in autumn
1969, Davis focuses on Douglass's intellectual and spiritual awakening,
and the importance of self-knowledge in achieving freedom from all forms
of oppression. With detailed attention to Douglass's text, she
interrogates the legacy of slavery and shares timeless lessons about
oppression, resistance and freedom.
And in an extended introductory essay written for this edition, Davis
comments on previous editions of the Narrative and re-examines
Douglass through a contemporary feminist perspective.
An important new edition of an American classic.
"Angela Y. Davis presents a long overdue examination of Douglass' work
not just from the perspective of a woman but one of the most provocative
and profound minds of the last half century. It is my sincere hope that
this City Lights edition of The Narrative will inspire researchers and
individuals to take a closer look at the tremendous degree of influence
Anna Murray Douglass had in the life and the career of her husband and
my great-great-great grandfather."--Kenneth B. Morris, Jr.,
Great-great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass and Great-great
grandson of Booker T. Washington
"Davis' arguments for justice are formidable . . . The power of her
historical insights and the sweetness of her dream cannot be
denied."--New York Times Book Review
"Long before 'race/gender' became the obligatory injunction it is now,
Angela Davis was developing an analytical framework that brought all of
these factors into play. For readers who only see Angela Davis as a
public icon . . . meet the real Angela Davis: perhaps the leading public
intellectual of our era."--Robin D. G. Kelley author of Thelonious
Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
"One of America's last truly fearless public
intellectuals."**--Cynthia McKinney, Former U.S. Democratic
Congresswoman
"Angela Davis's revolutionary spirit is still strong. Still with us,
thank goodness!"--Virginian-Pilot
"There was a time in America when to call a person an 'abolitionist' was
the ultimate epithet. It evoked scorn in the North and outrage in the
South. Yet they were the harbingers of things to come. They were on the
right side of history. Prof. Angela Y. Davis stands in that proud,
radical tradition."--Mumia Abu-Jamal
"Behold the heart and mind of Angela Davis, open, relentless, and on
time!"--June Jordan
"The enormous revolution in Black consciousness which has occurred in
your generation, my dear sister, means the beginning or the end of
America. Some of us, white and Black, know how great a price has already
been paid to bring into existence a new consciousness, a new people in
an unprecedented nation. If we know, and do nothing, we are worse than
the murderers hired in our name. If we know, then we must fight for your
life as though it were our own--which it is--and render impassable with
our bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the
morning, they will be coming for us that night."--James Baldwin
