SOURCE: "The Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass, in Phylon: The Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture, Vol. XL, No. 1, first quarter, March, 1979, pp. 15-28.

In the following essay, Matlack assesses the symbolic value of Douglass's three autobiographies and notes an overall decline in the literary quality of his later works.

The best-known and most influential slave narrative written in America was probably the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Within four months of its publication in 1845 five thousand copies were sold. Aided by favorable reviews and new editions, both in America and Britain, some thirty thousand had been sold by 1860. The Narrative thrust Douglass into the forefront of the anti-slavery movement. Coupled with his extensive speaking tours, it made Douglass the first black American to "command an audience that extended beyond local boundaries or racial ties."

Douglass' Narrative is consistently cited as one of the best-written autobiographies...