1 A Young Slave

Chapter 1 A Young Slave The man who became famous as Frederick Douglass was born in a log hut on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1818. His name at birth was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. Frederick's mother, Harriet, was a slave, which meant Frederick was a slave, too. They were owned by a man named Aaron Anthony. The slaves called him Captain Anthony or "Old Master." Who was Frederick's father? It may have been Captain Anthony. Frederick never

knew for sure. Captain Anthony owned three farms and about thirty slaves. He also managed the farms of a very rich man named Edward Lloyd. The Lloyd family owned thirteen farms and more than five hundred slaves. Captain Anthony lived on the Lloyds' main farm, Wye House plantation. Some of Captain Anthony's slaves lived there with him. Others, including members of Frederick's family, were spread out across other farms. Frederick's mother worked long hours in Captain Anthony's fields or in those of a neighbor who rented her. Frederick saw his

mother only four or five times in his life. Instead, he lived with his grandparents, Isaac and Betsey Bailey. Isaac was a free black man, but Betsey was a slave. Her job was to care for her many young grandchildren until they were old enough to work.

Frederick's early years were happy ones. For a time, he knew little of slavery. He enjoyed fishing in a nearby stream and watching squirrels scamper about. His grandparents' windowless cabin, with its clay floor and dirt-and-straw chimney, was small and rough. But to Frederick, it held "the attractions of a palace."

Then one day Betsey brought him to work at Captain Anthony's. Betsey kept the reason for their journey a secret so as not to upset young Frederick. It was a twelve-mile walk, so his strong grandmother had to "tote" him on her shoulders now and then. In the heat of the afternoon, they finally arrived at the grandest building Frederick had ever seen. Wye House was white, with stately pillars and a neatly trimmed lawn. The plantation sat on the Wye River and was like its

own little village, with barns, stables, kitchens, blacksmith's and shoemaker's shops, and more. Captain Anthony lived in a separate house on the property. SLAVERY IN AMERICA SLAVERY HAD BEEN PART OF