What was it like being a child in slavery in regards to things we take for granted (e.g., birthdays, spending time with your mother, etc.) as outlined...

At the
opening of his memoir, Douglass records how different the experience of what we think of as an
ordinary childhood is for a slave. He states that in most cases, including his own, slaves are
not told the day of their birth. The closest they come to finding out is possibly getting the
information that they were born near planting time, harvest time, or another time of year
associated with crops or the seasons.

Douglass says that all he knows of his
birthdate is that his master said in 1835 they he was about seventeen years old, which would
have put his birth year in 1818.

Douglass also states that, while he knew the
identity of his mother, he did not know who his father was, though it was possibly his master.
He also says that he was separated from his mother at an early age, which he also explains is
common among slaves. He asserts he believes this is done to prevent bonds of affection of
growing up between mother and child. As he puts it:

For
what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the
childs affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother
for the child. This is the inevitable result.

He only saw
his mother a few times in his early childhood, when she would come at night from the farm twelve
miles away to see him. She died when he was seven, but he did not hear of it until after she was
gone, and, as he did not know her well and could not feel grieved over it.

As
he shows, the childhood of a slave is one in which a firm identity is difficult to form (other
than that of being a slave).