Frederick Douglass was an emancipated slave who passed from one master to another until he
finally found the satisfaction of being his own; he went through almost as many names as
masters. His mother's family name, traceable at least as far back as 1701 (FD, 5) was
Bailey, the name he bore until his flight to freedom in 1838. His father may or may not
have been a white man named Anthony, but Douglass never firmly validated or rejected this
possibility. During transit to New York (where he became a freedman) his name became
Stanley, and upon arrival he changed it again to Johnson. …
