<div><div>In 1845, just seven years after his escape from slavery, the young Frederick Douglass published this powerful account of his life in bondage and his triumph over oppression. The book, which marked the beginning of Douglass鈥檚 career as an impassioned writer, journalist, and orator for the abolitionist cause, reveals the terrors he faced as a slave, the brutalities of his owners and overseers, and his harrowing escape to the North. It has become a classic of American autobiography.<br>This edition of the book, based on the authoritative text that appears in Yale University Press鈥檚 multivolume edition of the <i>Frederick Douglass Papers</i>, is the only edition of Douglass鈥檚 <i>Narrative</i> designated as an Approved Text by the Modern Language Association鈥檚 Committee on Scholarly Editions. It includes a chronology of Douglass鈥檚 life, a thorough introduction by the eminent Douglass scholar John Blassingame, historical notes, and reader responses to the first edition of 1845.<br>鈥淣one so dramatically as Douglass integrated both the horror and the great quest of the African-American experience into the deep stream of American autobiography. He advanced and extended that tradition and is rightfully designated one of its greatest practitioners.鈥濃?John W. Blassingame, from the introduction</div></div>