title: Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words
author:  Frederick Douglass 
description: In her brief foreword to this significant book, an abridgment of the first of three autobiographies penned by the one-time slave and abolitionist, Coretta Scott King notes that her late husband was "inspired and deeply moved" by Douglass's account of his early years. It is easy to see why, for the reader becomes utterly involved in Douglass's eloquent, quietly passionate account of his life as a young slave. Born in Maryland around 1817, Douglass lived on a plantation with his grandparents until the age of six, when he was sent to Baltimore. He served a variety of masters, working intermittently in the city and on farms, and vacillated between feeling "wearied in body and broken in spirit" and being fiercely determined to flee to freedom. Douglass's dream was realized in 1838, when he escaped to the North and found work as a caulker in New Bedford, Mass. The preservation of Douglass's original vocabulary, spelling and punctuation lends this trenchant account a formality unfamiliar to today's youngsters, yet the passage of 150 years has not rendered it any less immediate or piercing. McCurdy's distinctive woodcuts emphasize his subjects' vulnerability and their dignity. Ages 9-up. <br />Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  # Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Frederick Douglass
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY
  
  
  RECONSTRUCTION
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
      
  
  Douglass, Frederick. “My Escape from Slavery.”
  
  
  The Century Illustrated Magazine 23, n.s. 1 (Nov. 1881): 125-131.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY
  
  
  
  
  
    
  In the first narrative of my experience in slavery, written nearly
  
  
  forty years ago, and in various writings since, I have given the public
  
  
  what I considered very good reasons for withholding the manner of my
  
  
  escape. In substance these reasons were, first, that such publication
  
  
  at any time during the existence of slavery might be used by the master
  
  
  against the slave, and prevent the future escape of any who might adopt
  
  
  the same means that I did. The second reason was, if possible, still
  
  
  more binding to silence: the publication of details would certainly
  
  
  have put in peri