Editing Frederick Douglass (section)

=== Birth family ===

Douglass's enslaved mother was of [[African diaspora|African]] descent and his father, who may have been her master, was apparently of European descent;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davis|first= F. James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9d9FC-gcWaAC&q=Who+is+Black |title=Who is Black? One Nation's Definition |year= 2010 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-271-04463-7 |page=5 |access-date=October 9, 2020 |archive-date=December 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221122638/https://books.google.com/books?id=9d9FC-gcWaAC&q=Who+is+Black |url-status=live }}</ref> in his ''Narrative'' (1845), Douglass wrote: "My father was a white man."<ref name="narrative"/> According to [[David W. Blight]]'s 2018 biography of Douglass, "For the rest of his life he searched in vain for the name of his true father."<ref>{{cite book|author=David W. Blight|title=Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom|year=2018|publisher=Simon & Schuster|page=13}}</ref> Douglass's genetic heritage likely also included Native American.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dickson J. Preston |title=Young Frederick Douglass: The Maryland Years |date=1980 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |page=10}}</ref> Douglass said his mother Harriet Bailey gave him his name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and, after he escaped to the North in September 1838, he took the surname [[Douglass family|Douglass]], having already dropped his two middle names.<ref>''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave'', ch. XI.</ref>

He later wrote of his earliest times with his mother:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Douglass |first=Frederick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U69bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA10 |title=Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. |publisher=H.G. Collins |year=1851 |edition=6th |location=London |page=10 |access-date=October 26, 2015 |archive-date=May 10, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510025244/https://books.google.com/books?id=U69bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA10 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<blockquote>The opinion was also 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 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.</blockquote>

After separation from his mother during infancy, young Frederick lived with his [[maternal grandmother]] Betsy Bailey, who was also enslaved, and his maternal grandfather Isaac, who was [[Free people of color|free]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=McFeely |first=William S. |author-link=William S. McFeely |url=https://archive.org/details/frederickdouglas00will_0 |title=Frederick Douglass |date=1991 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Co.|isbn=978-0-393-02823-2 |location=New York |pages=3–5 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Betsy would live until 1849.<ref>Sterngass, Jon. 2009. ''Frederick Douglass'', (''Leaders of the Civil War era''). [[Chelsea House Publishers]]. {{ISBN|1-60413-306-6}}. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=QMstpTuOEpkC&pg=PA16 16] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615040201/https://books.google.ca/books?id=QMstpTuOEpkC&pg=PA16|date=June 15, 2020}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QMstpTuOEpkC&pg=PA132 132] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615000946/https://books.google.ca/books?id=QMstpTuOEpkC&pg=PA132|date=June 15, 2020}}</ref> Frederick's mother remained on the plantation about {{Convert|12|miles|km|abbr=}} away, visiting Frederick only a few times before her death when he was 7 years old.

Returning much later, about 1883, to purchase land in Talbot County that was meaningful to him, he was invited to address "a colored school":

{{Poemquote|I once knew a little colored boy whose mother and father died when he was six years old. He was a slave and had no one to care for him. He slept on a dirt floor in a hovel, and in cold weather would crawl into a meal bag head foremost and leave his feet in the ashes to keep them warm. Often he would roast an ear of corn and eat it to satisfy his hunger, and many times has he crawled under the barn or stable and secured eggs, which he would roast in the fire and eat.

That boy did not wear pants like you do, but a tow linen shirt. Schools were unknown to him, and he learned to spell from an old Webster's spelling-book and to read and write from posters on cellar and barn doors, while boys and men would help him. He would then preach and speak, and soon became well known. He became Presidential Elector, United States Marshal, United States Recorder, United States diplomat, and accumulated some wealth. He wore broadcloth and didn't have to divide crumbs with the dogs under the table. That boy was Frederick Douglass.<ref>{{cite journal
|title=Fred. Douglass dead
|first=Kate
|last=Field
|author-link=Kate Field
|journal=Kate Field's Washington
|volume=11
|number=8
|date=February 23, 1895
|page=119
|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2605441&view=1up&seq=155
|access-date=March 21, 2022
|archive-date=March 21, 2022
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220321013118/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2605441&view=1up&seq=155
|url-status=live
}}</ref>}}