Frederick Douglass was an African American slave who lived and worked on a plantation in Baltimore. He was separated from his mother at a very early age, so he never really knew her, and he never met his father. Since Douglass was a slave he was not given the opportunity to learn how to read and write. This did not stop him from becoming one of the most influential African American man in United States history. He was so determined to learn how to read and write he taught himself how to read and write after just a few lessons with the plantation owners wife. Later he wrote a narrative autobiography of his life that opened the eyes of all who read it, he set out to write this document to change the future of all African Americans. The autobiography