Frederick DouglassFrederick Douglass was a major leader of the abolitionist movement, who fought to end slavery in the United States in the decades before the Civil War. A brilliant orator, Douglass was asked by the American Anti-Slavery Society to engage in a lecture tour, and so was recognized as one of America's first great black orators. He gained worldwide fame when his autobiography was publicized in 1845. Two years later he published an anti-slavery newspaper called the North Star. Douglass served as an advisor to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and fought for the adoption of constitutional amendments that guaranteed voting rights and other civil liberties for blacks. Douglass provided a powerful voice for human rights during this period in American history and is still revered today for his contributions against racial injustice. The Years of Slavery Frederick Baily was born a slave in February 1818 on Holmes Hill Farm, near the town of Easton on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The farm was part of an estate owned by Aaron Anthony, who also managed the plantations of Edward Lloyd V, one of Maryland's richest men. Lloyd's main plantation was located near the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay, 12 miles from Holmes Hill Farm, in a house Anthony had built near the Lloyd mansion, where Frederick's first master lived. Frederick's mother, Harriet Baily, worked in the cornfields surrounding Holmes Hill. He knew little about his father, except that the man was white. As a child he had heard rumors that his master, Aaron Anthony, had fathered him. Because Harriet Baily had to work long hours in the fields, Frederick was sent to live with his grandmother, Betsey Baily. Betsy Baily lived in a cabin a short distance from Holmes Hill Farm. Her job was to look after Harriet's children until they were old enough to work. Federico's mother went to visit him when she could, but he only had a confused memory of her. He spent his childhood playing in the woods near his grandmother's cabin. During these years he did not consider himself a slave. Only gradually did Federico become aware of a person whom his grandmother referred to as the Old Master and when she spoke of the Old Master she did so with a certain fear..