Douglass Publishes Third Autobiography - The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

The 1892 Life and Times is divided into three sections, with the first devoted to "His Early Life as a Slave," the second to "His Escape from Bondage," and the third to "His Complete History to the Present Time." The first two sections are almost entirely unchanged from the 1881 edition, but the third section is entirely new. Like the 1881 edition, the 1892 Life and Times opens with an introduction by George Lewis Ruffin, the first African American graduate of Harvard Law School, who hails Douglass as "our most celebrated colored man" and "the most remarkable contribution this country has given to the world" (pp. 24, 17).

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass is Frederick Douglass' third autobiography, published in 1881, revised in 1892. The emancipation of American Slaves during and following the Civil War allowed Douglass to go into greater specifics of both his life as as slave and his escape from slavery in this volume than he could in his two previous autobiographies (which would have put both himself and his family in danger). It is also the only of Douglass' autobiographies to discuss his life during and after the Civil War, including his encounters with American Presidents such as Lincoln and Garfield, his account of the ill-fated "Freedman's Bank," and his career as the United States Marshall of the District of Columbia.