FREDERICK DOUGLASS Narrative of an American Slave

While a slave, Frederick Douglass learned to read and write, at the same time learning how these skills relate to freedom. After escaping to the North, Douglass used his words to help free others. Andrew L. Barnes reads Douglass's autobiography with the passionate anger, wit, observation, and fear for others still held in an unjust system that the author himself must have brought to his words. Thus, listening to Douglass's narrative takes on the sense of hearing Douglass himself in an abolitionist meeting and brings home how important his speeches were. His heartfelt words shed unique light on a brutal institution in a way few other histories can. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 06/ JAN 07]