Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Born into slavery on a plantation in Maryland, Frederick Douglass was able to escape in 1838, when he was 20. He went on to become a social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman, one of the most prominent figures in American history. Narrative (1845) is the first of the three autobiographies he wrote. The Library of Congress named it one of the “88 Books That Shaped America.”