Frederick Douglass born in Easton, MD
Douglass is born in a slave cabin near the town of Easton, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Separated from his mother when only a few weeks old, he is raised by his grandparents.
I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday…A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it. He deemed all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit.
My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the daughter of Isaac and Betsey Bailey, both colored, and quite dark. My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather…My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor. 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. I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life
Elizabeth Keckley born in Dinwiddle, Virginia
Elizabeth Keckley is born a slave in Dinwiddie County Court House, Dinwiddie, Virginia, south of Petersburg. Her mother is named Agnes and is a house slave owned by Armistead and Mary Burwell. Elizabeth’s mother is a ‘privileged slave’, having the opportunity to learn to read and write though this is not legal for slaves. She teaches her daughter Elizabeth these skills secretly. Elizabeth’s biological father is her master Armistead Burwell, a planter and colonel in the War of 1812. Burwell never acts as a father to Elizabeth but allows Agnes to marry George Pleasant Hobbs, another literate slave and he acts as a father figure to agnes in her early years. However his owner moves far away taking him away from his new family. Keckley begins working for the Burwells as a nursemaid for their four children when she is only four years old. She is an only child.
I was my mother’s only child, which made her love for me all the stronger. I did not know much of my father. . . he was separated from us, and only allowed to visit my mother twice a year–during the Easter holidays and Christmas. At last Mr. Burwell determined to reward my mother, by making an arrangement with the owner of my father, by which the separation of my parents could be brought to an end. It was a bright day, indeed, for my mother when it was announced that my father was coming to live with us. The old weary look faded from her face, and she worked as if her heart was in every task. But the golden days did not last long. . .. In the morning my father called me to him and kissed me, then held me out at arms’ length as if he were regarding his child with pride. “She is growing into a large fine girl,” he remarked to my mother. “I dun no which I like best, you or Lizzie, as both are so dear to me.” . . . While yet my father and mother were speaking hopefully, joyfully of the future, Mr. Burwell came to the cabin, with a letter in his hand. He was a kind master in some things, and as gently as possible informed my parents that they must part; for in two hours my father must join his master at Dinwiddie, and go with him to the West…I can remember the scene as if it were but yesterday;–how my father cried out against the cruel separation; his last kiss; his wild straining of my mother to his bosom; the solemn prayer to Heaven; the tears and sobs–the fearful anguish of broken hearts. The last kiss, the last good-by; and he, my father, was gone, gone forever.
Edgar Allan Poe born in Boston, Massachusetts
Edgar Poe is born to Eliza and David Poe, both professional actors. His parents die within days of each other of tuberculosis when he is three years old and he is split up from his sister Rosalie, and brother Henry, to be fostered by John and Frances Allan, successful tobacco merchants, who could not have their own children. He adds their name to his own. Poe is educated well, and develops a love of writing and gambling at a young age. He grows up close to his mother, but feels restricted by his father.
Mary Shelley born in Somers Town, London
Shelley is born to William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Her mother is a leading feminist writer, and a source of inspiration. Mary’s learned father, who has frequent guests in their home all through her formative years, guarantees her education. A voracious reader, she borrows books from her father’s extensive library. She enjoys writing at a young age.
It is not singular that, as the daughter of two persons of distinguished literary celebrity, I should very early in life have thought of writing
Sojourner Truth born in Swartekill, NY
Sojourner Truth is born Isabella Baumfree, one of as many as 12 children of James and Elizabeth Baumfree in the town of Swartekill, Ulster County, New York. Her father is a slave captured in modern-day Ghana; her mother is the daughter of slaves from Guinea. The Baumfree family is owned by Colonel Hardenbergh and lives at the colonel’s estate in Esopus, NY, 95 miles north of New York City.
I was given the name Isabella, and was called ‘Bell.’ My mother was named Elizabeth, and called Betsy and my father was named James…In my father’s youth he was very tall and straight. For that reason he was called “Bomefree,” which was Dutch for tree. We called my mother “Mau-mau” Bett. Mau-mau was Dutch for Mama. My parents were loyal, faithful, hard working and gave Colonel Ardinburgh no trouble. He rewarded their fidelity by allotting them a small plot of land by the mountainside. On it they could crops on weekends and evenings that they could barter on the extra food and clothing for their kids.
Isaac Newton born in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, England
Newton is born in Wollsthorpe-by-Colsterworth to a farmer by the name of Isaac Newton Sr. and Hannah Ayscough. His father dies three months before his birth. When Newton is three, his mother remarries and goes to live with her new husband, the Reverend Smith, she leaves her son in the care of his maternal grandmother. Newton is unhappy with the arrangement.
[I engage in] threatening my father and mother Smith to burn them and the house over them
William Shakespeare born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England
William Shakespeare is born of John and Mary Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He is their third child, however his two younger sisters die prior to his birth, the presumed cause being plague. John is an Alderman and Bailiff, and Mary is a housewife. As such he is educated at a local grammar school, where he first develops his love of writing.