Frederick Douglass: “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any…”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1845

I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

From his autobiography, Douglass reflects on the deliberate ignorance imposed on enslaved people regarding their personal history.

More from Frederick Douglass

Jan 1, 1881

The nation or people which shall comply with them will rise, and those which violate them will fall, and perhaps will disappear altogether.

Jan 1, 1881

No power beneath the sky can make an ignorant, wasteful, and idle people prosperous, or a licentious people happy.

Jan 1, 1881

Everywhere in the south the colored man is learning to read.

Jan 1, 1881

Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.

Frederick Douglass: “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.”