The narrative goes like this: A boy had a strong desire to study. However, Black slaves were forbidden to study in the 19th Century US! Although his mistress started teaching him, his master did not like it. However, 12-year-old Frederick did not give up. Whenever the lady sent him out for any reason, he used to carry some pieces of bread in his pockets. There were many poor White boys on the streets of Baltimore. Frederick learnt to read a little with their help in exchange for a piece of bread. At the same time, he used to save money in order to purchase books.
Frederick could purchase a second-hand book, 'The Columbian Orator', after saving 50 cents. This book, first published in 1797, contained a piece on the conversation between a slave and his master. The master wanted to convince his slave that the latter made a mistake by repeatedly trying to escape. As expected, the master argued in favour of the Slave System. However, the Black slave refuted all the arguments put forth by his master. The logic behind the slave's counter-argument prompted his master to free him, voluntarily!
This literary work, titled 'Dialogue Between a Master and Slave', changed the life of the 12-year-old Frederick. Later, the boy wrote: "I read them over and over again with unabated interest. They gave tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of utterance. The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder." (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Chapter VII) A fearless revolutionary was born out of the conviction that truth had such a strength that it could awaken the conscience of a slave owner!
That 12-year-old slave was none other than Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817/18 - February 20, 1895), the American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman who became the most important leader of the Movement for African-American Civil Rights in the 19th Century. One of the close aides of President Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865), Frederick himself established the fact through his activities that Blacks were not brute creatures, but intellectually equal to Whites. It was mentioned right under the title of the first of his autobiographies (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave) that Written by Himself! At that period of time, quite a lot of people found it rather difficult to accept the fact that a Black could pen such a book!
The book, authored by Frederick in 1845, marks 180 years since its publication! The book changed the course of many lives, since then. Now, this publication has become no less than an invaluable asset in case of the free people! Researchers are of the opinion that The Columbian Orator was basically a collection of powerful political essays, poems and dialogues (collected and written by Caleb Bingham) from ancient times to the American Civil War (April 12, 1861 - May 26, 1865). They believe that the flow of thoughts from one book (The Columbian Orator) to another (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave) is the best legacy of human civilisation!
The quest of attempting to find a book within a book is actually a search for a life within a life! When a socially important figure attempts to pen her/his biography, then the book becomes even more special as it has the ability to change the course of the lives of others! Also, each and every reader carries within her/himself a book that has changed the her/his life.
In an era of dwindling number of quality readers, if a book of this stature fails to find worthy readers, then one can only hope against hope that people would be able to grasp the true meanings of such life and freedom through another medium!
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