12 Facts About Frederick

1. Around the age of seven, Frederick witnessed a terribly mean overseer, Mr Gore, shoot a slave in the face.

2. In that dark period, it is said, Frederick was on the verge of suicide.

3. In this conflict Frederick distinguished himself by continually keeping at bay much more powerful antagonists.

4. At age 13, Frederick seems to have embarked upon a youthful affair with Peter Karl Christoph Keith, a 10-year-old page of his father.

5. Just like Catherine II, Frederick recognised the educational skills the Jesuits had as an asset for the nation.

6. Contrary to what his father had feared, Frederick proved himself very courageous in battle.

7. Late in his life Frederick involved Prussia in the low-scale War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778, in which he stifled Austrian attempts to exchange the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria.

8. In one defining respect Frederick would come to the throne with an exceptional inheritance.

9. When he was 18, Frederick plotted to flee to England with Katte and other junior army officers.

10. On September 3, 1838, Frederick successfully escaped from slavery, reached New York and went to the house of David Ruggles, a noted African-American abolitionist.

11. On the first Saturday of every month, Frederick hosts an evening event in the downtown area called "First Saturday".

12. As the county seat for Western Maryland, Frederick not only was an important market town, but the seat of justice.