My Bondage and My Freedom

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism and enslavement.

Chattel slavery, in which enslavers were granted legal rights to the people whom they enslaved as though they were property, began in what would become the United States during European colonization. Even though Northern states passed laws to abolish slavery after the American Revolution, the system of enslavement remained in the South after other colonizing powers had abolished the practice—the United Kingdom, for example, passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. Enslavers in the South argued that the Southern economy depended on enslavement due to the prevalence of the cotton industry and other commodity crops.

Nevertheless, resistance to slavery grew in the United States, and abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, spread the word about the plight of enslaved people and fought for their emancipation. Anti-enslavement societies grew and took part in various activities such as publishing information, holding lectures and meetings, raising money, and lobbying politicians. As he narrates in My Bondage and My Freedom, Douglass was a talented orator with a compelling story, and he became involved in the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, spoke at events, and solicited subscribers for their anti-enslavement newspapers.

African American people organized many conventions to discuss how to end enslavement, and the National Convention of Colored Citizens in 1843 inspired Douglass to further action.