This is the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, one of the first and finest personal accounts of the evils of slavery. Written and published soon after his escape from slavery, it is a powerfully dramatic account of the cruelty of the Maryland plantation within which he was held captive. The book was an instant sensation, and brought him to the forefront of the antislavery movement in the 1850s. Skeptics refused to believe that so articulate an orator could ever have been a slave; Douglass's detailed narrative and eloquence in his public speeches helped grow the anti-slavery movement into the Civil War. This slim volume is an indispensable part of American history, and the story of a courageous African American hero.