Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas: An American Slave.
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born around 1818 into slavery in Talbot Country, Maryland. No one knows the exact date when Douglass' was born. Later in his life Douglass chooses to celebrate it on February 14. All his childhood he lived with his maternal grandmother and her name was Betty Bailey. Douglas was selected in live in the home of the plantation owners eventually the owners became like his parents. An intermittent presence in his life, died when Douglas was around 10 years old. After the death he was given to Lucretia Auld the wife of Thomas Auld. It was at the Auld home that Frederick Douglass first acquired the skills that would vault him to national celebrity. Defying a ban on teaching slaves to read and write, Hugh Auld's wife Sophia taught Douglass the alphabet when he was around 12. When Hugh Auld forbade his wife's lessons, Douglass continued to learn from white children and others in the neighborhood. Douglass tried to escape from slavery twice before he succeeded. He was assisted in his final attempt by Anna Murray, a free black woman in Baltimore with whom Douglass had fallen in love. "Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity." (Ch. 5, A Narrative). On September 3, 1838, Douglass boarded a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Eventually after all the escaping he settled down and started writing books. American author, abolitionist, and lecturer, Douglas wrote three autobiographies during his life-time; A Narrative on the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881). Douglass was the first slave to stand publicly and declare his fugitive status, became a prolific lecturer, and published many newspapers during his lifetime which he devoted to causes in the name of "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for all, as set forth in the United States Declaration of Independence.
