n. In Douglass's case, his imprisonment as a slave is all the more bitter because of his parentage--his father was a white man, reputed to be the boy's master, though Douglass says he has no real knowledge of the fact. As a child, he was separated from his mother, a practice he says was common in the part of Maryland from which he ran away:
For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child's affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result (48).
Douglass describes his life as a slave in the pages of this book, and his experiences are illuminating. His story shows how his life and character were shaped by the slavery into whi
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