After my shift ended last night, I picked up a copy of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. It’s a memoir of his life as slave between different owners and his eventual escape. Though short, roughly 120 pages, I would have to put this on the top of my recommendations. The copy I bought has an introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. He had some issues with the Cambridge police regarding home invasion, but that isn’t important in regards to his writing. Our school actually received a visit by him late in December. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend.
The narrative itself shows the barbarity of the slave owners and how they tried to rob them of intellectual progress. They feared it would lead to their freedom, and ultimately, the enslavement of the white race. I wasn’t surprised by some of the things he described, but it was gruesome and vivid. Not an easy read, but something which schools need to be teaching. Not just dead white authors.
We live in a country of monsters.
Stage Fright 