Before he became an American leader of the abolitionist movement in the U.S., Frederick Douglass lived as a slave in which state?

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was born into slavery on a plantation in Cordova, Talbott County, in the state of Maryland. He was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining a reputation for his oratory skills and incisive antislavery writings.

Other abolitionists at the time considered him a living counter-example of slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent citizens.

During his lifetime, Douglass wrote three autobiographies describing his experiences as a slave. In 1845 his autobiography 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave', became a bestseller. In this first autobiography he writes, "The opinion was...whispered that my master was my father; but the correctness of this opinion I know nothing... My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant..It [was] common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age...I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day".

This first autobiography was influential in promoting the cause of abolition followed by his second autobiography ten year later- 'My Bondage and My Freedom'. His last autobiography, 'Life and Times of Frederick Douglass' was written after the U.S. Civil War.