The Life of Frederick Douglass. Childhood Frederick Bailey Was Born a Slave in Talbot County, Maryland in 1818, Though He Didn't Know It
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Welcome to the life of Frederick Douglass. Childhood Frederick Bailey was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland in 1818, though he didn't know it. He never knew his father, except that he was white, and his mother died when he was 7. Along with most other slave children in the area he was raised by one family, which happened to be his grandparents. In 1824, when he was five, he was taken to a plantation to work as a house-slave. Slaves were usually given eight lbs. Of fish or pork, a pint of salt, and a bushel of cornmeal a month. At the beginning of each year they were given two coarse shirts, one rough jacket, one pair of heavy trousers, one pair of socks, and one pair of shoes. When Frederick got older he and a few other slaves hoped to escape from a plantation on a boat, but someone told the plantation owner about their plan and they were caught. Adulthood When he finally escaped he rode three trains, three ferries, and one steamboat. Frederick had to borrow Seamen's Papers from a friend, so he could 'prove' he wasn't a slave. While he was in New York, he changed his surname from Bailey to Johnson to prevent slave catchers from catching him. But there were to many people with the last name Johnson, so he changed his surname from Johnson to Douglass. While his last name was Johnson he married Anna Murray on September 15,1838. You can do anything you want when you set your mind to it! In 1845 he wrote an autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Frederick wrote under his slave name, Frederick Bailey. He was in danger of being caught, so he moved to England. Some friends in England bought his slave papers some time between 1845 and 1847, now Frederick Douglass was free and he could go back to America. In 1847 he started his own newspaper, "The North Star," or as it was later renamed "Frederick Douglass' Paper". He was an important speaker against slavery and for Women's Rights, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, recruited people for the first black army unit, and wrote My Bondage, My Freedom in 1855 and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass in 1881. In 1882 Anna Douglass died. Two years later he married Helen Pitts, a white woman. On February 20, 1895 Frederick died of a heart attack. ThEsE ARE THE REASONs why I chose Frederick Douglass to do my report on. Anna Douglass.