Frederick Douglass' first autobiography, originally published in 1845, offers a harrowing first-hand account of living as a slave and a treatise on abolition. As a child, Douglas realizes that slave owners used illiteracy as a way to control their slaves and so teaches himself to read and learn everything he can. When he discovers the word "abolition" and its meaning, it plants the seed of the idea to someday run away to the North—a dream he later achieves. By 1860, the book had sold over 30,000 copies and served as one of the most influential texts supporting the abolitionist movement.

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