Life and Times of Frederick Douglass Written by Himself, His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape from Bondage, and His Complete History to the Present Time

At an antislavery convention in Nantucket in 1841, Fredrick Douglass was asked to speak about his experiences under slavery, from which he had escaped only three years before. As he spoke, he so captivated the audience that he began working full-time against slavery. He started his memoirs, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, in 1845, and later completed and revised them in 1855, 1881, and 1892. His narrative, which refuted the opinions of Douglas's detractors (who felt that such an articulate man could not have been a slave), tells the story of a black man's search for selfhood under the oppressive hand of slavery.