Q 01/05

Which new mistress, a former weaver, began teaching the young Frederick Douglass his alphabet?

A) Lucretia Auld

B) Sophia Auld

C) Rowena Hamilton

D) Amanda Auld

Answer · why

B) Sophia Auld

Sophia Auld taught him his letters until her husband forbade it as unlawful and unsafe. Douglass wrote that owning a slave then turned her kindness in...

Q 02/05

Which notorious slave-breaker did a sixteen-year-old Frederick Douglass fight for nearly two hours?

A) William Hamilton

B) Daniel Weeden

C) Edward Covey

D) Rigby Hopkins

Answer · why

C) Edward Covey

Edward Covey never whipped him again after that fight. Douglass called it the turning point that revived his sense of his own manhood.

Q 03/05

Which famous anti-slavery newspaper editor wrote the preface that opens Frederick Douglass's Narrative?

A) Theodore Weld

B) Arthur Tappan

C) John Greenleaf Whittier

D) William Lloyd Garrison

Answer · why

D) William Lloyd Garrison

William Lloyd Garrison first heard Douglass speak at an 1841 convention and wrote that he would never forget it. Four years later he introduced the bo...

Q 04/05

Which city did Frederick Douglass call the gateway to his later prosperity after being sent there at about seven?

A) Baltimore

B) Annapolis

C) Richmond

D) Washington

Answer · why

A) Baltimore

Baltimore gave him what plantation life never could: the chance to learn to read. He saw the move as the first sign of a kind providence watching over...

Q 05/05

What did young Frederick Douglass hand to poor white street boys in exchange for secret reading lessons?

A) Marbles

B) Pennies

C) Bread

D) Tobacco

Answer · why

C) Bread

Bread was always plentiful in his master's house, while the boys he met on errands were often hungry. He longed to name them in thanks but feared it w...