Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave and abolitionist author. In his 19th-century autobiography, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" (1845), Douglass gives examples of how the songs sung by slaves had multiple meanings. His examples are sometimes quoted to support the claim of coded slave songs. Douglass similarly offers interesting comments but not clear evidence in "My Bondage and Freedom": "A keen observer might have detected in our repeated singing of 'O Canaan, sweet Canaan, I am bound for the land of Canaan' something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We meant to reach the north – and the north was our Canaan. "I thought I heard them say,/ There were lions in the way,/ I don't expect to stay/ Much longer here/" was a favorite air and had a double meaning. In the lips of some, it meant the expectation of a speedy summons to a world of spirits; but in the lips of our company, it simply meant a speedy pilgrimage toward a free state, and deliverance from all the evils and dangers of slavery."