What does it mean to be free? Chances are your answer will be something like: ‘being able to mind my own business, free from the interference of others’. Political philosopher dr. Dorothea Gädeke (UU) argues that this dominant liberal notion of freedom has its limits. To understand why, we should look at the institution of slavery. What does it teach us about freedom? And what can we learn from the formerly enslaved activist and thinker Frederick Douglass?