Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an antislavery lecturer, a journalist, a publisher, and the bestselling author of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, followed by My Bondage and My Freedom, and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.

John Stauffer (editor) is a professor of literature and African American studies and chair of the History of American Civilization program at Harvard. His eight books include The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race, Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, and State of Jones, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.