Frederick Douglass was born February 1818 (Bodden 13). There is not an exact date of his birth, because he was separated from his family at a young age (“Encyclopedia” 1). Harriet Bailey was his mother; although he later adopted the name Douglass once he escaped to New York in 1883, by borrowing some identification from an African American sailor …show more content…
‘His speeches were so well delivered, in fact, some of his opponents began questioning whether Douglass had actually been a slave’ (Bodden 16). After Douglass published his Autobiography ‘Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave’ he had to escape to Great Britain, leaving his family behind in fear of being recaptured until 1847 when he became a free man with help from British supporters (Bodden 16-17). If he wouldn’t have sailed to Britain and gained support from British followers, he would have risked being captured by white men and put back into slavery, so he had to leave everything behind. Despite all of this his sacrifice helped us learn more about slavery and what they went