Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass - Kailey

The introduction to the

Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass

was very conversational and informative as should be. It gives information regarding the author's background, events of the time, and outside views and opinions on the narrative however, it is mostly a summary. It's progression is much like that of the introduction to

Harper's New Monthly Magazine.

The introduction starts by explaining what the piece is about, why it came about, and a little about what is going in society at the time. Harper's introduction gave more information on other author's, writers of the time, etc. but this was expected due to the nature of the magazine. The Fredrick Douglass introduction was quite a bit more casual and the vast majority of it consisted of a summary. In our introduction I think that a combination of the Douglass introduction and the Harper's introduction would best fit our needs based on the piece that we're introducing. Our introduction needs to be conversational enough to reach today's audience and keep them interested and engaged but still needs to be informative so that the audience can understand the importance of American history and the society at the time.