Frederick Bailey doesn’t know the year of his birth. Separated from his mother in infancy, he sees her only a few times, always at night, before her death. His fellow slaves agree that his father is a white man. At the age of seven or eight, Frederick is sent from the Maryland plantation of his birth to Baltimore. His kindly new mistress starts teaching him to read, until her furious husband forbids it. Frederick realizes then that reading is his path to freedom, but his journey is long and horrible. In writing his Narrative, Frederick Douglass, a fugitive slave, revealed his slave name, the names of his masters and overseers, and the locations of his servitude. This volume also includes eleven selected essays and speeches.