Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1817 in Tuckahoe, Maryland. His slave mother Harriet Bailey made him adopt the birthday February 14th as his birthday, not knowing the exact date of his birth.He knew very little about his other since she was employed as a field hand on a plantation some twelve miles away, and she died when he was eight or nine years old. Douglass know even less about his father, but it was rumored that he was the son of this white slave master, Aaron Anthony.

      Young Frederick was grossly mistreated. To keep from starving, on many occasions, he competed with his aster's dogs for table scraps and bones. In 1825, he was sent to serve as a house boy in the home of Hugh and Sophia Auld in Baltimore. Mrs. Auld grew fond of him and sought to teach him how to read and write. By the time her irate husband discovered the deed and put a stop to it, Douglass had acquired
enough rudiments to carry on by himself.

      His life in Baltimore was interrupted in 1832 at the death of Captain Anthony was passed along to the possession of Thomas Auld, Anthony's son-in-law. The lessons he learned about the evils of slavery and his hatred of the institution was deepened during his stay with Thomas Auld .He was infuriated the Aulds by refusal to call his owner Master instead of Captain.Determined to crush the spirit of young Frederick,Thomas Auld hired him out to Edward Covey, aslave breaker who worked and whipped mercilessly.

    He endured the mistreatment until one day he could stand it no longer and fought back. Soon thereafter,Fred was again sent to Baltimore ,where he met Anna Murray,his love for and encouragement from Anna Murry. His love for a encouragement from Anna,a free Black woman,heightenend his quest to be a free man.On Sept. 3,1838 Douglass ,dressed in a sailor's uniform and carried indetification papers provided by a free Black seaman,managed to reach NYC.Fredrick Douglass changed his surname from Bailey to Douglass,married Anna,and the couple moved to New Bedford,Mass.Douglass tolded his story, and he was immediately urged to become an Anti-Slavery lecturer.

    His freedom jeopardized by the detailed documentation presented in the book,Doulgass fled to England and remained overseas for two years.With the financial aid of his European friends,Douglass returned to America,legally secured his free
 

do,and launched his newspaper,the North Star.Douglass wrote scathing editorials on variety of topics:Slavery was just one of his targets.He wrote:"Those who profess to favor freedom,and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground."

    In an effort to attack job discrimination against Blacks,he "we need mechanics as well as minister."He respond to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850,by writing that the "true reedy" to the legislation was a "good revolver,a steady hand and determination to shoot down any man attempting to kidnap"a fugitive slave.Douglass also found tie to publish his autobiography,My bondage and My Freedom, in 1855.He focused attention on Jim Crow laws in the North, by entering public places in which he knew these laws were enforced,sometimes risking physical ejection.

    He also gave his money to aid fugitive slaves, and used his printing shop in Rochester,New York as an Underground Railroad station.A warrant for Douglass arrest was issued after the Harare's Ferry raid, and Douglass had too again flee:this tie, he went to Canada for several months.