The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

The most famous memoir of its kind and a key text in the anti-slavery movement, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass tells the striking and emotionally charged story of one man's journey from slavery to freedom. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by Dr. Lydia Plath. Born into a life of slavery in Maryland 1818, Frederick Douglass spent his youth passed from master to master, from city to field, and subjected to unimaginable cruelty. Along this journey he sought knowledge, he learned to read and write, and he discovered that education was his key to salvation. Using everything he learned and fuelled by all he was forced to endure, Douglass managed to escape and then, eventually, to free himself from slavery. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a startlingly honest account of his struggle, played a fundamental role in the abolition of slavery, a movement that Douglass dedicated his life to. About the Author James Weldon Johnson was born in Jacksonville, 1871. He trained in music and in 1901 moved to New York with his brother John; together they wrote around two hundred songs for Broadway. His first book, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, published anonymously in 1912, was not a great success until he reissued it in his own name in 1927. In that time he established his reputation as a writer and became known in the Harlem Renaissance for his poems and for collating anthologies of poems by other black writers. Through his work as a civil rights activist he became the first executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as the first African American professor to be hired at New York University. He died in 1938.