Frederick Douglas, an American, HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orator" \o "Orator" orator , diplomat, and social reformer was born near Easton, on the shores of Maryland on February 1818. His grandparents brought up Fredrick following his separation from his mother barely a few weeks after his birth. He spent most of his early years living with his grandparents and aunt, and only interacted with the mother less than five times prior to her death. The only thing that Douglass knew about his father was that he was white. This period served to expose him to the degradations caused by slavery, bearing witness to firsthand atrocious whippings and at the same time spend much time hungry and in cold (Douglass 66b).
When he attained age six, his grandmother deliberately took him to her master’s plantation where he was innocently abandoned. The deep feeling of betrayal from his grandmother adversely affected his life, a situation that he could not recover from easily. At age eight Fredrick was transferred to work as a houseboy in Baltimore under his taskmasters, Sophia Auld and Hugh who were related to his master. The early period of his working in the new station worked to see him learn alphabets thanks to his new mistress. Soon afterwards, the husband stopped the mistress goodwill claiming it was illegal for slaves to learn how to read. It was at this moment that Fredrick decided to carry out the learning process on his own. In order to accomplish this, he used boys from the neighborhood as his teachers, by offering away his meals in exchange for coaching in writing and reading.
When he turned thirteen Douglas bought a copy of the “The Columbian Orator,” fashionable schoolbook of that period. This book went ahead to assist him understand and appreciate the power of the written and spoken word as the main means of propagating lasting positive change. Douglass spent seven comfortable years in Baltimore prior to his return to the country.
His comeback to Maryland Eastern shore came when he was about fifteen and served to see him become a field hand. It was during this period that he experienced most horrific conditions faced by slaves following the 270 years of slavery legalization in America. Here, Fredrick received brutal treatment said to have left him "broken in soul, body, and spirit" thanks to Edward Covey, a notoriously brutal slave breaker. This encounter resulted to a challenge said that ended in a draw, although Douglas benefited a lot considering the fact that it serves to restore his self worth (Douglass 44b).
On January 1, 1836, Douglass resolved to fight for his freedom by the time the year ends. He designed a mechanism to escape. However, in the early days of April he was locked up following his aborted plan. Two years later, aged twenty, Douglass succeeded to escape fleeing the city on September 3, 1838 after making an impersonating a sailor. His journey by train, then steamboat, and train again landed him in New York …