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the narrative of the life of frederick douglass
frederick douglass

chapter i

1 i was born in tuckahoe, near hillsborough, and about twelve miles from easton, in talbot county, maryland. i have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. by far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. i do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. they seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time. a want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. the white children could tell their ages. i could not tell why i ought to be deprived of the same privilege. i was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it. he deemed all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit. the nearest estimate i can give makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. i come to this, from hearing my master say, some time during 1835, i was about seventeen years old.

2 my mother was named harriet bailey. she was the daughter of isaac and betsey bailey, both colored, and quite dark. my mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather.

3 my father was a white man. he was admitted to be such by all i ever heard speak of my parentage. the opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, i know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. my mother and i were separated when i was but an infant--before i knew her as my mother. 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. frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor. for what this separation is done, i do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child's affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. this is the inevitable result.

4 i never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night. she was hired by a mr. stewart, who lived about twelve miles from my home. she made her journeys to see me in the night, traveling the whole distance on foot, after the performance of her day's work. she was a field hand, and a whipping is the penalty of not being in the field at sunrise, unless a slave has special permission from his or her master to the contrary--a permission which they seldom get, and one that gives to him that gives it the proud name of being a kind master.

read the passage on the left to answer the following questions:

14)
what does the example of birthdays reveal?
a) the speaker is unable to read or count.
b) white children and slave children were treated differently.
c) children are unhappy when they do not celebrate their birthdays.
d) the speaker was abandoned by both of his parents when he was born.
15)
based on paragraph 1, the reader can infer or predict that the speaker will
a) continue to question and be aware of his situation.
b) accept his situation and be a good worker.
c) learn to read and write.
d) become the head slave.