Frederick Douglass contradicted everything white people thought about blacks by the way he conducted himself in front of a large crowed and by the way he survived on his own.

             Frederic Douglass was one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement, which fought to end slavery in the US during the decades prior to the civil war. A brilliant speaker, Douglas was asked by the American Anti-Slavery Society to engage in a tour of lectures, and so became recognized as one of America's first great black speakers. He won world fame when his autobiography was publicized in 1845. Two years later he began publishing an antislavery paper called the North Star. Douglass served as an adviser to president Abraham Lincoln during the civil war and fought for the adoption of constitutional amendments that guaranteed voting rights and civil liberties for blacks. Douglas provided a powerful voice for human rights during this period of American history and is still revered today for his contributions against racial injustice.

             Frederic Baily was born a slave in February 1818 on Holmes farm, near the town of Easton Maryland. The farm was part of an estate owned by Aaron Anthony, who also managed the plantations of Edward Lloyd V, one of the wealthiest men in Maryland. The main Lloyd plantation was near the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay, 12 miles from Holmes Hill Farm, in a home Anthony had built near the Lloyd mansion, was were Fredericks first master lived. Fredericks mother, Harriet Baily, worked the cornfields surrounding Holmes hill. He knew little of his father except that he was a white man. As a child he had heard rumors about the master, Aaron Anthony, who had sired him. Because Fredericks mother was required to work long hours Frederick was sent to live with his grandmother, Betsy Baily. Her job was to watch Harriet's children until they were old enough to work in the fields. .

             Fredericks mother rarely visited them, so Frederick grew up with a vague memory of his mother.