Frederick Douglass Publishes My Bondage and My Freedom

Douglass's second autobiography expanded significantly on his 1845 Narrative, analyzing slavery as a system of political and economic power rather than individual cruelty. The book sold 18,000 copies in two years. Crucially, it marked Douglass's intellectual independence from his early white abolitionist mentors, asserting that the Constitution could be read as an anti-slavery document and that political engagement was essential to Black liberation.