Read the passage below from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and then answer questions 3-6.
I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland. 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. They seldom come nearer to
it than planting time, harvest-time, cherry time, spring time, or fall-time. 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. The nearest estimate I can give
makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, some time
during 1835. I was about seventeen years old.
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 lever 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 forma
considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for held 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.
Question 3
5 pts
The first paragraph is primarily about:
the conditions of the 1800s
the narrator's understanding of his age.
the narrator's birthday
the history of Maryland
What is the first paragraph about?