This volume, the most famous of all slave narratives, written by the most towering black figure of the nineteenth century, is both literature and historical analysis. In a well-crafted prose, Douglass provides a true glimpse of the brutal experience of slavery in ante-bellum America. Douglass has left an indispensable legacy for modern day readers in helping them understand what it's like to be -broken in body, soul, and spirit- yet rise above unimaginable adversity to become an outstanding orator.