David Blight has produced a fine edition of Douglass' second autobiography. This is an essential work in African-American and American history, and displays Douglass' developing strength as a writer and political leader. -Richard Slotkin, Wesleyan University With scorching rhetoric, my heroic ancestor rails against the inhumanity of slavery while upholding the tenets of liberty with poetic elegance. In this new edition, David Blight offers a fresh perspective on my great-great-great grandfather's life from his enslavement on the eastern shore of Maryland to his emergence as a revolutionary leader at the center of a national crisis over the future of slavery. -Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives David Blight's graceful introduction provides the essential historical context, public as well as private, and helps us appreciate how Douglass's great book managed to be at once a piercing polemic, an extraordinary act of memory, and a masterpiece of American prose. -James Oakes, City University of New York