Frederick Douglass: An Influential African-American Abolitionist Writer

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass was an influential African American abolitionist leader, and famous writer. Born as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. Born around 1818 in Talbot county Maryland. In those times the birth date and time were not known, so Douglass chose the date of February 14 to celebrate his birthday. Frederick Douglass lived with his grandmother, Betty Bailey when he was very young. Douglass was picked to live in the plantation owner’s home, and one of them may have been his father. His mother was in and out of his life, and died when Douglass was about 10 years old. Frederick Douglass learned how to read when he was sent to live in the Baltimore home of Hugh Auld. It was the mistress Mrs. Auld who taught Douglass the alphabet and a couple of words. She stopped teaching Douglass when Mr. Auld found out about what she had been doing and forbade it. Mrs. Auld had never owned a slave before so she was not used to the cruelty that came with being a slave-owner; she actually viewed Douglass as an equal human being. Douglass explains that Mrs. Auld was a very kind woman who treated him like his own son, but later on the slave system changed her as well. Mrs. Auld began to use her authority as a slaveholder. Her kind nature was completely dominated by the slaveholder mentality. She embraced her

In his memoir not only does he give the reader a miniscule idea of the horrors of slavery, he explains the important role of education in him achieving freedom. One of the main points to remember is that absence of knowledge deprives people of their capability to control. Keeping the slaves ignorant managed to take away their right to control their lives. To Douglass education literally means freedom, and for someone who did not have it any type of freedom for the first years of his live, this is extremely