When Frederick Douglass arrived in Britain in 1845 he was on the run from his owner. Because the transatlantic slave trade had been legally abolished, most people thought that slavery was a dead issue. Douglass knew differently, and he had the memories and the scars to prove it. He had written the story of his life to prove that slavery was still alive. He had a mission: to argue that if slavery still existed anywhere in the world it was everyone’s concern. For two years he toured Britain and changed public opinion.

As he changed the minds of others, however, Douglass had choices to make about his own life. Choices that went to the heart of who he thought he was as a husband, a father, a friend, a political activist – as a man. This play explores the dilemmas and passions at the heart of one of history’s great struggles, and one of history’s great figures.