Frederick Douglass - SLAVE TO STATESMAN

Frederick Bailey was most likely born in February 1818 (although there are no records to prove the exact date) in his grandmother’s slave cabin in Talbot County, Maryland. He was probably mixed race: African, Native American and European, as it’s likely that his father was also his master. His mother was sent away to another plantation when he was a baby, and he saw her only a handful of times in the dark of night when she would walk 12 miles to see him. She died when he was seven.

Frederick was moved around and loaned out to different families and households throughout his childhood. He spent time on plantations and in the city of Baltimore, a place he described as much more benevolent towards enslaved people, where they had more freedom and better treatment than on plantations. Indeed, Baltimore was one of the most bustling harbour cities in America, a meeting place of people and ideas of all kinds from all around the world; a place in which dreams and visions of freedom could easily be fostered.

One mistress, Sophia Auld, took a great interest in the 12-year-old, teaching him the alphabet. But her husband