The powerful story of slavery that has become a classic of American autobiography, in an authoritative edition "This edition is the most valuable teaching tool on slavery and abolition available today. It is exceptional."-Nancy Hewitt, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Rutgers University The autobiography of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, is widely regarded as a classic of American nineteenth-century history, of African-American studies, and of literature. In 1845, just seven years after his escape from slavery, the young Douglass published this powerful account of his life as a slave and his triumph over oppression. The book, which marked the beginning of Douglass's 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. This edition of the book, based on the authoritative text that appears in Yale University Press's multivolume edition of the Frederick Douglass Papers, is the only edition of Douglass's Narrative designated as an Approved Text by the Modern Language Association's Committee on Scholarly Editions. It includes a chronology of Douglass's life, a thorough introduction by the eminent Douglass scholar John Blassingame, historical notes, and reader responses to the first edition of 1845. "None 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."-John W. Blassingame, from the introduction

Reissued for the first time in over thirty years, "Black New Orleans" explores the twenty-year period in which the city's black population more than doubled. Meticulously researched and replete with archival illustrations from newspapers and rare periodicals, John W. Blassingame's groundbreaking history offers a unique look at the economic and social life of black people in New Orleans during Reconstruction. Not a conventional political treatment, Blassingame's history instead emphasizes the educational, religious, cultural, and economic activities of African Americans during the late nineteenth century.
"Blending historical and sociological perspectives, and drawing with skill and imagination upon a variety of sources, [Blassingame] offers fresh insights into an oft-studied period of Southern history. . . . In both time and place the author has chosen an extraordinarily revealing vantage point from which to view his subject. "--Neil R. McMillen, "American Historical Review
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A magisterial and landmark work, one that merits wide and thoughtful readership not only by historians, but, more important, by those of us who count on historians to tell us truly about our past. - New York Times ""A testament to the resilience of the black spirit, faced with a primitive and largely conscienceless regime."" - Bertram Wyatt-Brown, South Atlantic Quarterly ""This volume does much more than merely present a rich collection of judiciously selected and skillfully edited sources of the history of slavery; in the process it reveals a host of large-as-life slaves and ex-slaves: Kale, the precocious eleven-year-old Mende of the Amistad rebels, who quickly learned to write eloquent and polished English; Harry McMillan of Beaufort, South Carolina, who talked frankly of black love and marriage; Charlotte Burris of Kentucky, so 'afflicted' that her husband was permitted to buy her for only $25.00, 'as much as I was worth,' she self-effacingly said; and many more. This illumination of the slave as an individual is really what the book is all about."" - Journal of Southern History ""A mammoth presentation of two centuries of slave recollections . . . extraordinary firsthand narratives that should become the premier reference volume on the slave experience for years to come."" - Columbia (SC) State ""The largest collection of annotated and authenticated accounts of slaves ever published in one volume. . . .So valuable a compilation is this study that its real worth cannot be measured for some time to come."" - Richmond News Leader