Born into slavery in 1818, Frederick Douglass rose to become a preeminent American intellectual and activist who, as a statesman, author, lecturer, and scholar, helped lead the fight against slavery and racial oppression. Unlike many other leading abolitionists, Douglass embraced the U.S. Constitution, believing it to be an essentially anti-slavery document guaranteeing that individual rights belonged to all Americans, of all races. Further, in his most popular lecture, "Self-made men," Douglass spoke of people who rise through their own effort and devotion rather than circumstances of privilege. Independence, pride, and personal and economic freedom were to his eyes the natural consequences of the basic principle of equality that lay at the heart of the American dream - a dream of all people, without regard to race, deserved a chance to pursue. This biography takes a fresh look at Douglass's life and inspirational legacy. As detailed in this compact and highly compelling work, Douglass - in some ways a conservative, in other ways a revolutionary - espoused and lived the central idea of his work: we own ourselves and must be free to make ourselves the best people we can be.