Q 01/05

What was Frederick Douglass's surname at birth?

A) Auld

B) Anthony

C) Bailey

D) Johnson

Answer · why

C) Bailey

He was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and dropped the middle names before choosing a new surname in the North.

Q 02/05

In which state was Douglass born into slavery?

A) North Carolina

B) Delaware

C) Virginia

D) Maryland

Answer · why

D) Maryland

He grew up in Talbot County on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

Q 03/05

Douglass chose to celebrate his birthday on February 14 because his mother called him what?

A) Her 'February boy'

B) Her 'winter blessing'

C) Her 'sweetheart'

D) Her 'Little Valentine'

Answer · why

D) Her 'Little Valentine'

He never knew his exact birth date; historian Dickson Preston later fixed it as February 1818.

Q 04/05

Who first began teaching the roughly 12-year-old Douglass the alphabet in Baltimore?

A) Sophia Auld

B) Betsy Bailey

C) Lucretia Auld

D) Anna Murray

Answer · why

A) Sophia Auld

Her husband Hugh stopped the lessons, which Douglass called the first 'antislavery lecture' he ever heard.

Q 05/05

Which classroom anthology did Douglass credit with defining his views on freedom and human rights?

A) The Columbian Orator

B) The American Speaker

C) The Liberator

D) Poor Richard's Almanack

Answer · why

A) The Columbian Orator

First published in 1797, it was a reader of essays, speeches and dialogues that he found at about age 12.