Often considered among the most well-known and influential abolitionist texts in the United States, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass details the life and abolitionist work of Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery in Maryland in 1817 or 1818. After suffering under twenty years of violence and forced labor—ranging from work in the fields of Maryland to Baltimore's shipyards—Douglass escaped to freedom in New York City in 1838. Though Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass received much praise, Douglass feared recapture by his former enslaver and spent two years in Britain and Ireland until he was able to buy his freedom with the monetary support of those he met abroad. He died at the age of 77 or 78 in 1895.