One of the most astonishing autobiographies ever read was written by a man, for whom much of his life he could not read or write, it is written by a man who it actually accompanies the American dream. A man who literally pulls himself up by his boot straps, in a rags to riches type story. This man, is Fredrick Douglas, born a man, enslaved, but died a man. Fedick odulgass is an American slave who was able to account for the life of a slave. It gave us a glimpse into the life of the slave, during a sad era in American history. It also gave us a look at how to overcome, not just slavery but a situation. In the text Fredrick Douglas writes “You have seen how a man was enslaved; you will see how a slave was made man” (Norton 546). Here he makes a clear distinction that he knew when he was a slave and he knew when he was a man, but what is a slave? What is a man? And how did he make this transition from slave to free man? In the following text I will define his assent as a slave and a man and describe how he managed to become a man; a free man. In this story there are 2 types of slavery; slavery of the mind and slavery of the body. Through the text you see Douglass overcome the bondage of the mind, but he knew that the bondage of the body was what he wanted. However, no one helped him himself. Yes, in the story countless black and especially white people help grant Douglass "true" freedom, but many slaves were in the same position as Douglas, but only one has an autobiography. This shows that not only was it a difficult task but that it was possible to be free, to achieve freedom. Fredrick Douglas also realized this when he freed his mind. By freeing his mind and learning to read, write and work, he managed to become a man. This gave him the abilities to free his body, to the point where he was eventually able to become free