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Life as a Slave
Chapter 5
Parentage
Douglass writes what little he knows of his mother, Harriet Bailey, who was hired out and could visit him only rarely at night, and reflects on how slavery legally erases fatherhood and family.
Douglass's mother Harriet Bailey and her rare nighttime visitsSlavery's legal erasure of paternitySpeculation that his master was his fatherHis mother's death and unmarked grave