:http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASseparation.htm Frederick Douglass "claimed that in the part of Maryland where he was born: "to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off." Today mothers have to leave their newborns with grandparents or friends or strangers.