Chapter 1 Summary

Frederick Douglass begins Chapter 1 of his narrative the same as many books, with some personal biographical details. He states that he comes from the city of Tuckahoe in Talbot County, Maryland. However, he points out that, like all slaves, he has been given very little information about his own age, and has had to guess it. He describes how most slaves merely know that they were born around certain seasons like "harvest-time." Douglass relates how awful it was to realize that all of the white children knew their exact ages and could discuss it openly, while he was kept ignorant of his own and wasn't allowed to even bring it up. He estimates that he is now 27 or 28 years old, from what he's been able to piece together from his master's statements.

Douglass states the names of his mother and her parents and...