Born on a Maryland plantation, Frederick Douglassborn Frederick Bailydoesnt know the year of his birth. Separated from his mother in infancy, he sees her only a few times, always at night, before she dies. At the age of seven or eight, Fredericks mistress starts teaching him to read, until her furious husband forbids it. Frederick realizes then that reading is his path to freedom and determines to run away to the Northern United Stateswhatever the cost.