Frederick Douglass

American abolitionist, author, and statesman — who escaped slavery in 1838, taught himself to read and write in defiance of law, became the most famous orator and writer in the abolitionist movement, and served as US Marshal for the District of Columbia — author of three autobiographies.

Creates the first-person slave narrative as a political weapon — Douglass's Narrative (1845) was the most powerful antislavery document produced in America, because it combined irrefutable personal testimony with literary skill that devastated the proslavery argument that enslaved people lacked intellectual capacity.