HBD Frederick Douglass?

As you read Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration and we begin thinking about the place of slavery in American history and culture, some curious misinformation going around the internet today.

Curious, because Frederick Douglass did not know when his birthday was. He begins his famous autobiography with the following words: “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.”

In freedom, Frederick Douglass would go on to celebrate yearly birthdays (in February)…but does this contemporary, blithe belief that he “had” a birthday indicate some fundamental misunderstanding of slavery on our part today?