Rating: 
Summary: Compelling
Review: I know it's a cliche to say a book should be read by everyone, but I agree with the other reviewers that this one really should be read by all Americans.
In addition to its historical significance, it's a well told story and I could hardly put it down. I see why Douglass was considered a great speaker for the abolitionist cause.
Also, Douglass' insights into the "psychology" of slave owning could be described as universal comments on human nature, applicable to situations going on today.
In the book he left out some information to protect people who had helped him out of slavery. By researching on the internet, I figured out these were his friends in a black intellectual circle that met in Baltimore. One of them was Anna Murray, a free black woman who loaned him traveling money. "Anna was a few years older than Frederick and was a servant for a wealthy Baltimore family. Although Anna was a plain, uneducated woman, Frederick admired her qualities of thriftiness, industriousness and religiousness. Anna and Frederick were soon in love and in 1838 they were engaged." In the book he wrote about how he loved this group of friends and how hard it was to risk leaving them for an uncertain future. Yet he opted to continue seeking freedom. Later he was able to reunite with Anna, and they were together until her death in 1882.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing account of the early Black story in the US.
Review: Everybody should read this book so that we don't forget freedom is such a precious thing... for absolutely everyone (no more slavery and segregation, please).
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: I had to read this for a freshman history class. I dreaded it before because I usually hate historical nonfiction biographies, but I was quite surprised. Anytime somebody says that Affirmative Action is necessary because of past wrongs, I direct them to read this book. This man had the drive to learn to read in secret (at the age of 8) and ultimately escape to the free North to become an author. And his conditions were FAR worse than anybody's today! It's a very inspirational novel. It details the horrors of the slaves having to be split from their families and the hardships they had to endure. It also gave some insight to the mindsets of the slave owners. This is not a long book and is well worth an afternoon.
Rating: 
Summary: Frederick Douglass review
Review: I enjoyed "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass", but would not necessicarily recommend it to a person or class. I appreciate the perspective that I gained from encountering his life story, but I was never really entertained or enlightened. The story was more depressing than happy, and large parts of the story were left out for his safety reasons. Allow I respect that, it does have an effect on his account of the escape. I would say that overall this book is pretty good, but just doesn't connect for me.
Rating:
Summary: JAMIN BIO!
Review: Wow! This has got to be one of the best autobiographies I have ever read. Douglass gives one a great idea of the struggles he went through while he was a slave and trying to runaway. If you want to know more about slavery then this is the book to read.
Rating:
Summary: The very best autobiography I have ever read!
Review: I knew very little about Frederick Douglass when I first set out to read his autobiography. We had to read three or four chapters for our American Literature class. But when I saw the size of the book I didn't think it would hurt to just go ahead and read the whole thing. I'm glad I did.When you ask the layperson who Frederick Douglass was the answers you usually get are runaway slave, orator, abolitionist, and the like. Are these accurate? Yes. But try this one: American Hero! We usually think of Benjamin Franklin as the ultimate self-made American. But it was actually Frederick Douglass. Yes, Franklin started with virtually nothing and worked his way into financial and professional prosperity, finding success in a variety of fields. But Frederick Douglass did the same thing, except he started with absolutely nothing but the rags on his back. (He didn't even start out with his freedom!) He risked his life to prove that a free man is the best man. Even as he wrote his autobiography, he refused to mention the details of his escape, fearing that it would jeopordize the possible escapes of other slaves. One of the things that I found very disturbing in this book (there are many disturbing passages in this book) was the fact that of all the slaveholders he had to contend with, the most brutal of all were the ones who claimed to be Christians. (I'm glad that Douglass was himself a strong enough Christian to not be misguided by those pious hypocrites.) One of the saddest passages in the book is as follows: "Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others." (Page 85, Signet Classic) This was a very controversial statement made not by someone who gets his kicks from mocking Christianity, but by someone who has experienced, first-hand, the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ but then had to suffer at the hands of people who claimed that their "love" for Jesus Christ gave them license to brutalize and torment any under their charge. I believe that Douglass knew the dangers of going public with this information. I believe he knew of the possibilities of his being returned to a state of slavery - whether it be through political unrest and upheaval in the North, or kidnapping, or any possible way. I believe that he knew that there would be people in both the South and the North who would want to see him dead because of what he was saying. This is why I call him an American hero.
Rating:
Summary: Cliff's Notes of "My Bondage, My Freedom"
Review: While this book is a good one, it is merely a smaller version of Douglass' more substantial work, "My Bondage, My Freedom". This one, however, does contain the more inspiring, more breathtakingly amazing accounts of the trials of Douglass' life.
If you are interested in Douglass, check this out. If you are already a fan of Douglass and his amazingly inspiring story, buy the larger volume. Both will move you from within and inspire you to be a better person.
Rating:
Summary: The evils of slavery from one man's perspective.
Review: If there are any doubters about the evils of slavery, read this book. I have heard it said by some white Southerners that slavery benefited the black population, and furthermore blacks were better off in the United States than in Africa. Slavery was evil and this book proves it.
Douglass points out how slaveholders killed and mutilated their own slaves, and nobody did anything about it. When a slave outlived his/her usefulness, the slaveholder often cast them off, so they did not have to feed and clothe these slaves. Slave families were often broken up for the benefit of the slaveholder. Wives and husbands were separated. Slaves worked long hard days and then had to turn over their pay to their slaveholder. If slaves tried to educate themselves, the slaveholders would break up their classes and then punish those seeking the education. Same with those seeking comfort from the Holy Bible. Those slaves were punished.
The question was did slavery benefit the black slave population of the South. The answer is a resounding NO. Douglass does a good job of detailing the hell of slavery.
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