Narrative of the life of Fredrick Doughlass

Endured as a slave circa1818 (slaves weren't told when they were born) on a ranch in Maryland, Douglass guided himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years after fleeing to the North, he publicised Narrative, The first of three autobiographies. This book calmly but dramatically narrates the atrocities and the actions of his early years—the everyday, colloquial viciousness of the white masters; his painful efforts to apprise himself; his decision to find freedom or die; and his brutal but successful escape. An amazing speaker and a skilful writer, Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political activist, and an articulate representative for the civil rights of African Americans. He lived through the Civil War, the ending of slavery, and the beginning of segregation. He was applauded internationally as the foremost black intellectual of his day. And his story still reverberates with ours.