Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Born into slavery on a Maryland plantation, Frederick Douglass doesn't know the year of his birth. Separated from his mother in infancy, he sees her only a few times, always at night, before she dies. At the age of seven or eight, Douglass is sent to Baltimore where, for the first time, he is fully clothed and has enough to eat. His new mistress starts teaching him to read, until her furious husband forbids it. Douglass realises then that reading is his path to freedom, and he determines to run away to the Northern United States - whatever the cost. In writing his Narrative, Douglass endangered his freedom by revealing his slave name, the names of his masters and overseers, and the locations of his enslavement. This starkly honest and verifiable account gave new momentum to the abolitionist movement and reamins as shocking today as when it was originally published. This volume also includes eleven selected essays and speeches, including the classic "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?".