An American Slave by Frederick Douglass is an autobiography of his entire life. One of the reasons he wrote this book was to show people that such an expressive and bright man could not have once been a slave. Douglass's book describes his experience while he was a slave from his early childhood until he escaped North at the age of twenty.
Douglass was born in Talbot County, Maryland. He didn't know what year he was born but estimated that it was around 1818. Douglass was separated from his mother at birth. This was a frequent practice of slave owners to try and break the natural bond between the mother and child. When Douglass's mother Harriet Bailey died he was hardly affected by the news because he rarely seen her. Douglass's father was a white man; slaveholders usually impregnated their female's slaves to increase the number of slaves they owned.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass portrait
English: Portrait of Frederick Douglass as a young...As a child Douglass didn't work in the fields because children weren't strong enough. Therefore, he had free time to do other things besides tasks. Sometimes he would go along wit the Colonel's grandson, Daniel, as a servant when he went hunting. Daniel in time became close to Douglass which was an advantage. But, Douglass still suffered because slave children were only given a long linen shirt, therefore in the winter he would be really cold. When Douglass was eight years old he was selected to go to Baltimore to live with Hugh Auld. Douglass was not sad to leave the plantation because he had no family or any sense of home that children usually had. He believes that if he had not been removed that he would still be a slave today.
Douglass was amazed how kind his new was; unlike other white women she did not punish him...