Frederick Douglass is born on February 14th, 1818. He was a social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman after escaping from slavery in Maryland. Douglass became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in New York and Massachusetts. His work and anti-slavery writing became famous around the world.

Note: Records are inaccurate and there is a debate about his actual birth year.

Frederick Douglass was born in eastern Chesapeake Bay of Talbot County, Maryland. It isn’t know what exact day, but Douglass was born sometime in February of 1818. He would later decide to have his official birthdate celebrated on February 14th. In today’s post, I will be sharing his first-hand account of how he escaped out of Maryland and left slavery behind risking his life in order to obtain freedom.  Douglass, the son of a slave women and a white father, had a very harsh beginning. He once wrote that:

“The opinion was… 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 is a 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 of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone.” 

CLICK HERE TO READ HIS FULL ACCOUNT OF ESCAPING FROM MARYLAND