Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818, and after his escape in 1838 repeatedly risked his own freedom as an antislavery speaker, writer and publisher. John David Smith is Distinguished Professor of History and Director of the Masters in Public History Program at North Carolina State University.

“My Bondage and My Freedom, besides giving a fresh impulse to antislavery literature, [shows] upon its pages the untiring industry of the ripe scholar.”—William Wells Brown

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818, and after his escape in 1838 repeatedly risked his own freedom as an antislavery speaker, writer and publisher. John David Smith is Distinguished Professor of History and Director of the Masters in Public History Program at North Carolina State University.

“My Bondage and My Freedom, besides giving a fresh impulse to antislavery literature, [shows] upon its pages the untiring industry of the ripe scholar.”—William Wells Brown