Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies (Loa #68): Narrative of the Life / My Bondage and My Freedom / Life and Times

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an American social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement and was known for his dazzling oratory and incisive writing. He wrote several autobiographies that eloquently described his life as a slave and his struggles to be free, including his first and best-known work, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, which was influential in gaining support for abolition.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. An award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has authored or coauthored twenty-two books and created eighteen documentary films, including Finding Your Roots. His six-part PBS documentary, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program-Long Form, as well as a Peabody Award, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and NAACP Image Award.