User talk:Frederick Douglass

Frederick Baily was born as a slave in February 1818 on Holmes Hill Farm, located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He was raised by his grandparents up until the age of six when they took him to their master’s plantation and left him there, Douglass never forgave them for the betrayal of leaving him. Around the age of eight, he was sent to his master’s relatives Hugh and Sophia Auld in Baltimore, and there his mistress taught him the alphabet. When the mistress husband forbade her from teaching him, he decided to exchange his food with the neighborhood kids for them to teach him how to read and write. The first book he purchased around the age of 13 was a schoolbook entitled The Columbian Orator, which became his biggest influence of understanding and appreciating the power of written words. Shortly after becoming a field hand, he became determined to find freedom. After many mishaps, Douglass now 20 years old, succeeded in escaping by impersonating as a sailor.