Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave

African-American statesman author orator and social reformer Frederick Douglass was also an abolitionist. He rose to prominence as a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York after fleeing slavery in Maryland. He is remembered for his brilliant speeches and cutting antislavery writings. Abolitionists at the time saw him as a tangible refutation of the claim made by slaveowners that slaves lacked the intelligence to be productive members of society in the United States. The idea that such a renowned orator having once been a slave was difficult for Northerners to accept at the time.