Born on a plantation in Talbot County, Maryland, in February 1818, Frederick Douglass is best known as an orator and writer who campaigned and fought against the institution of slavery and its dehumanizing effects on African Americans. His remarkable first work, entitled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, was published in 1845. It chronicles his life as a slave and his dreams of, and eventual escape to, freedom.

As a young boy, Douglass experienced and witnessed the brutal consequences of slavery. At birth, he was separated from his mother, whom he saw only a handful of times until she died when he was seven. As a young boy he was sent to Baltimore to work as a house slave. There, he was fortunate to be taught briefly how to read until his master ended his lessons. For years, Douglass continued by...