Frederick Douglass

My Bondage and My Freedom . Frederick Douglass

Birth familyDouglass was of mixed race, which likely included Native American and African on his mother's side, as well as European. In contrast, his father was "almost certainly white," as shown by historian David W. Blight in his 2018 biography of Douglass. Douglass claimed that his mother Harriet Bailey gave him his grand name and, after escaping to the North years later, he took the surname Douglass, having already dropped his two middle names. He later wrote of his earliest times with his mother: The opinion was...whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion I know nothing.... My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant.... It [was] common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age.... I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day.... She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. After separation from his mother during infancy, young Frederick lived with his maternal grandmother Betsy Bailey, who was also a slave, and his maternal grandfather Isaac, who was free.[23] Betsy would live until 1849. Frederick's mother remained on the plantation about 12 miles (19 km) away, only visiting Frederick a few times before her death when he was 7 years old. My Bondage and My Freedom is an autobiographical slave narrative written by Frederick Douglass and published in 1855. It is the second of three autobiographies written by Douglass, and is mainly an expansion of his first (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass), discussing in greater detail his transition from bondage to liberty. Following this liberation, Douglass, a former slave, went on to become a prominent Abolitionist, speaker, author, and publisher