In my letters and speeches, I have generally aimed to discuss the question of Slavery in the light of fundamental principles, and upon facts, notorious and open to all making, I trust, no more of the fact of my own former enslavement, than circumstances seemed absolutely to require. Entertaining that feeling very sincerely, and permitting its control, perhaps, quite unreasonably, I have often refused to narrate my personal experience in public anti-slavery meetings, and in sympathizing circles, when urged to do so by friends, with whose views and wishes, ordinarily, it were a pleasure to comply. Douglass, written in answer to my urgent solicitation for such a work:ĭear Friend: I have long entertained, as you very well know, a somewhat positive repugnance to writing or speaking anything for the public, which could, with any degree of plausibility, make me liable to the imputation of seeking personal notoriety, for its own sake. Perhaps the best Preface to this volume is furnished in the following letter of Mr. I am authorized to say that there is not a fictitious name nor place in the whole volume but that names and places are literally given, and that every transaction therein described actually transpired. The reader is, therefore, assured, with all due promptitude, that his attention is not invited to a work of Art, but to a work of Facts-Facts, terrible and almost incredible, it may be-yet Facts, nevertheless. The nature and character of slavery have been subjects of an almost endless variety of artistic representation and after the brilliant achievements in that field, and while those achievements are yet fresh in the memory of the million, he who would add another to the legion, must possess the charm of transcendent excellence, or apologize for something worse than rashness.

If the volume now presented to the public were a mere work of Art, the history of its misfortune might be written in two very simple words- too late.

My bondage and my freedom 1855