TEHRAN – “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, an autobiography of the American slave Frederick Douglass has been published in Persian.

Saless is the publisher of the book, which has been translated into Persian by Amir Rakei.

Born a slave circa 1818 (slaves weren’t told when they were born) on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. 

In 1845, seven years after escaping to the North, he published Narrative, the first of three autobiographies. 

This book calmly but dramatically recounts the horrors and the accomplishments of his early years—the daily, casual brutality of the white masters; his painful efforts to educate himself; his decision to find freedom or die; and his harrowing but successful escape.

An astonishing orator and a skillful writer, Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political activist, and an eloquent spokesperson for the civil rights of African Americans. 

He lived through the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the beginning of segregation. He was celebrated internationally as the leading Black intellectual of his day, and his story still resonates in ours.

Having escaped from slavery at age 20, he took the name Frederick Douglass for himself and became an advocate of abolition. Douglass traveled widely, and often perilously, to lecture against slavery.

In 1870, Douglass launched The New National Era out of Washington, D.C. He was nominated for vice-president by the Equal Rights Party to run with Victoria Woodhull as a presidential candidate in 1872. 

He became U.S. marshal of the District of Columbia in 1877 and was later appointed minister resident and consul-general to Haiti. His District of Columbia home is a national historic site. He died in 1895 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Frederick Douglass’s autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”.

MMS/YAW