This is the first paperback facsimile edition of a work which contributed strongly to the Black people's struggle for freedom and equality. Born in slavery in Maryland in 1817, Frederick Douglass escaped from servitude twenty years later, joined the ranks of the Abolitionists and devoted a long and fruitful life to the winning of freedom for his people. Douglass worked with William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips and John Brown, and during the Civil War was so highly regarded by Abraham Lincoln for his contributions to the Union cause that the Great Emancipator called him "the most meritorious person I have ever seen." A fervent integrationist, Douglass was the first of the "freedom riders" and "sit-ins". He felt that true freedom could not come for him until all Blacks were free and equal, and he gave voice and direction to the movement to achieve this goal. Told in Frederick Douglass's own words, this volume is an important work of Americana.