Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was one of the most prominent abolitionists of the 1840s and 1850s.  He worked tirelessly for the abolition cause, lecturing throughout the North and in Britain, publishing before the Civil War two now-classic autobiographical accounts of his life and escape from slavery, and founding and publishing the abolitionist newspaper the North Star beginning in 1847.

In the following excerpt from My Bondage and My Freedom—published in 1855, the same year as the first edition of Leaves of Grass—Douglass describes his escape from slavery.

 
I have never approved of the very public manner, in which some of our western friends have conducted what they call the "Underground Railroad," but which, I think, by their open declarations, has been made, most emphatically, the "Upperground Railroad."  Its stations are far better known to the slaveholders than to the slaves.  I honor those good men and women for their noble daring, in willingly subjecting themselves to persecution, by openly avowing their participation in the escape of slaves; nevertheless, the good resulting from such avowals, is of a very questionable character.  It may kindle an enthusiasm, very pleasant to inhale; but that is of no practical benefit to themselves, nor to the slaves escaping.  Nothing is more evident, than that such disclosures are a positive evil to the slaves remaining, and seeking to escape.  In publishing such accounts, the anti-slavery man addresses the slaveholder, not the slave; he stimulates the former to greater watchfulness, and adds to his facilities for capturing his slave . . . . 

My condition in the year (1838) of my escape, was, comparatively, a free and easy one, so far, at least, as the wants of the physical man were concerned; but the reader will bear in mind, that my troubles from the beginning, have been less physical than mental . . . .  The practice, from week to week, of openly robbing me of all my earnings, kept the nature and character of slavery constantly before me.  I could be robbed by indirection, but this was too open and barefaced to be endured.  I could see no reason why I should, at the end of each week, pour the reward of my honest toil into the purse of any man . . . . 

Held to a strict account, and kept under a close watch--the old suspicion of my running away not having been entirely removed--escape from slavery, even in Baltimore, was very difficult.  The railroad from Baltimore to Philadelphia was under regulations so stringent, that even free colored travelers were almost excluded.  They must have free papers; they must be measured and carefully examined, before they were allowed to enter the cars; they only went in the day time, even when so examined.  The steamboats were under regulations equally stringent.  All the great turnpikes, leading northward, were beset with kidnappers, a class of men who watched the newspapers for advertisements for runaway slaves, making their living by the accursed reward of slave hunting. 

My discontent grew upon me, and I was on the look-out for means of escape.  With money, I could easily have managed the matter, and, therefore, I hit upon the plan of soliciting the privilege of hiring my time.  It is quite common, in Baltimore, to allow slaves this privilege, and it is the practice, also, in New Orleans.  A slave who is considered trustworthy, can, by paying his master a definite sum regularly, at the end of each week, dispose of his time as he likes . . . .  It so happened that I was not in very good odor, and I was far from being a trustworthy slave.  Nevertheless, I watched my opportunity when Master Thomas came to Baltimore (for I was still his property, Hugh only acted as his agent) in the spring of 1838, to purchase his spring supply of goods, and applied to him, directly, for the much-coveted privilege of hiring my time.  This request Master Thomas unhesitatingly refused to grant; and he charged me, with some sternness, with inventing this stratagem to make my escape.  He told me, "I could go nowhere but he could catch me; and, in the event of my running away, I might be assured he should spare no pains in his efforts to recapture me.  He recounted, with a good deal of eloquence, the many kind offices he had done me, and exhorted me to be contented and obedient.  "Lay out no plans for the future," said he.  "If you behave yourself properly, I will take care of you."  Now, kind and considerate as this offer was, it failed to soothe me into repose.  In spite of Master Thomas, and, I may say, in spite of myself, also, I continued to think, and worse still, to think almost exclusively about the injustice and wickedness of slavery.  No effort of mine or of his could silence this trouble-giving thought, or change my purpose to run away. 

About two months after applying to Master Thomas for the privilege of hiring my time, I applied to Master Hugh for the same liberty, supposing him to be unacquainted with the fact that I had made a similar application to Master Thomas, and had been refused.  My boldness in making this request, fairly astounded him at the first.  He gazed at me in amazement.  But I had many good reasons for pressing the matter; and, after listening to them awhile, he did not absolutely refuse, but told me he would think of it.  Here, then, was a gleam of hope.  Once master of my own time, I felt sure that I could make, over and above my obligation to him, a dollar or two every week.  Some slaves have made enough, in this way, to purchase their freedom.  It is a sharp spur to industry; and some of the most enterprising colored men in Baltimore hire themselves in this way.  After mature reflection--as I must suppose it was Master Hugh granted me the privilege in question, on the following terms:  I was to be allowed all my time; to make all bargains for work; to find my own employment, and to collect my own wages; and, in return for this liberty, I was required, or obliged, to pay him threedollars at the end of each week, and to board and clothe myself, and buy my own calking tools.  A failure in any of these particulars would put an end to my privilege.  This was a hard bargain.  The wear and tear of clothing, the losing and breaking of tools, and the expense of board, made it necessary for me to earn at least six dollars per week, to keep even with the world. All who are acquainted with calking, know how uncertain andirregular that employment is.  It can be done to advantage only in dry weather, for it is useless to put wet oakum into a seam.  Rain or shine, however, work or no work, at the end of each week the money must be forthcoming. 

Master Hugh seemed to be very much pleased, for a time, with this arrangement; and well he might be, for it was decidedly in his favor.  It relieved him of all anxiety concerning me.  His money was sure.  He had armed my love of liberty with a lash and a driver, far more efficient than any I had before known; and, while he derived all the benefits of slaveholding by the arrangement, without its evils, I endured all the evils of being a slave, and yet suffered all the care and anxiety of a responsible freeman.  "Nevertheless," thought I, "it is a valuable privilege another step in my career toward freedom."  It was something even to be permitted to stagger under the disadvantages of liberty, and I was determined to hold on to the newly gained footing, by all proper industry.  I was ready to work by night as well as by day; and being in the enjoyment of excellent health, I was able not only to meet my current expenses, but also to lay by a small sum at the end of each week.  All went on thus, from the month of May till August; then--for reasons which will become apparent as I proceed--my much valued liberty was wrested from me. 

During the week previous to this (to me) calamitous event, I had made arrangements with a few young friends, to accompany them, on Saturday night, to a camp-meeting, held about twelve miles from Baltimore.  On the evening of our intended start for the camp-ground, something occurred in the ship yard where I was at work, which detained me unusually late, and compelled me either to disappoint my young friends, or to neglect carrying my weekly dues to Master Hugh.  Knowing that I had the money, and could hand it to him on another day, I decided to go to camp-meeting, and to pay him the three dollars, for the past week, on my return.  Once on the camp-ground, I was induced to remain one day longer than I had intended, when I left home.  But, as soon as I returned, I went straight to his house on Fell street, to hand him his (my) money.  Unhappily, the fatal mistake had been committed.  I found him exceedingly angry.  He exhibited all the signs of apprehension and wrath, which a slaveholder may be surmised to exhibit on the supposed escape of a favorite slave.  "You rascal!  I have a great mind to give you a severe whipping.  How dare you go out of the city without first asking and obtaining my permission?" "Sir," said I, "I hired my time and paid you the price you asked for it.  I did not know that it was any part of the bargain that I should ask you when or where I should go." 

"You did not know, you rascal!  You are bound to show yourself here every Saturday night."  After reflecting, a few moments, he became somewhat cooled down; but, evidently greatly troubled, he said, "Now, you scoundrel! you have done for yourself; you shall hire your time no longer.  The next thing I shall hear of, will be your running away.  Bring home your tools and your clothes, at once.  I'll teach you how to go off in this way." 

Thus ended my partial freedom.  I could hire my time no longer; and I obeyed my master's orders at once.  The little taste of liberty which I had had--although as the reader will have seen, it was far from being unalloyed--by no means enhanced my contentment with slavery.  Punished thus by Master Hugh, it was now my turn to punish him.  "Since," thought I, "you will make a slave of me, I will await your orders in all things;" and, instead of going to look for work on Monday morning, as I had formerly done, I remained at home during the entire week, without the performance of a single stroke of work.  Saturday night came, and he called upon me, as usual, for my wages.  I, of course, told him I had done no work, and had no wages.  Here we were at the point of coming to blows.  His wrath had been accumulating during the whole week; for he evidently saw that I was making no effort to get work, but was most aggravatingly awaiting his orders, in all things.  As I look back to this behavior of mine, I scarcely know what possessed me, thus to trifle with those who had such unlimited power to bless or to blast me.  Master Hugh raved and swore his determination to "get hold of me;" but, wisely for him, and happily for me, his wrath only employed those very harmless, impalpable missiles, which roll from a limber tongue.  In my desperation, I had fully made up my mind to measure strength with Master Hugh, in case he should undertake to execute his threats.  I am glad there was no necessity for this; for resistance to him could not have ended so happily for me, as it did in the case of Covey.  He was not a man to be safely resisted by a slave; and I freely own, that in my conduct toward him, in this instance, there was more folly than wisdom.  Master Hugh closed his reproofs, by telling me that, hereafter, I need give myself no uneasiness about getting work; that he "would, himself, see to getting work for me, and enough of it, at that."  This threat I confess had some terror in it; and, on thinking the matter over, during the Sunday, I resolved, not only to save him the trouble of getting me work, but that, upon the third day of September, I would attempt to make my escape from slavery.  The refusal to allow me to hire my time, therefore, hastened the period of flight.  I had three weeks, now, in which to prepare for my journey. 

Once resolved, I felt a certain degree of repose, and on Monday, instead of waiting for Master Hugh to seek employment for me, I was up by break of day, and off to the ship yard of Mr. Butler, on the City Block, near the draw-bridge.  I was a favorite with Mr. B., and, young as I was, I had served as his foreman on the float stage, at calking.  Of course, I easily obtained work, and, at the end of the week--which by the way was exceedingly fine I brought Master Hugh nearly nine dollars.  The effect of this mark of returning good sense, on my part, was excellent.  He was very much pleased; he took the money, commended me, and told me I might have done the same thing the week before.  It is a blessed thing that the tyrant may not always know the thoughts and purposes of his victim.  Master Hugh little knew what my plans were.  The going to camp-meeting without asking his permission--the insolent answers made to his reproaches--the sulky deportment the week after being deprived of the privilege of hiring my time--had awakened in him the suspicion that I might be cherishing disloyal purposes.  My object, therefore, in working steadily, was to remove suspicion, and in this I succeeded admirably.  He probably thought I was never better satisfied with my condition, than at the very time I was planning my escape.  The second week passed, and again I carried him my full week's wages--nine dollars; and so well pleased was he, that he gave me TWENTY-FIVE CENTS! and "bade me make good use of it!"  I told him I would, for one of the uses to which I meant to put it, was to pay my fare on the underground railroad. 

Things without went on as usual; but I was passing through the same internal excitement and anxiety which I had experienced two years and a half before.  The failure, in that instance, was not calculated to increase my confidence in the success of this, my second attempt; and I knew that a second failure could not leave me where my first did--I must either get to the far north, or be sent to the far south.  Besides the exercise of mind from this state of facts, I had the painful sensation of being about to separate from a circle of honest and warm hearted friends, in Baltimore.  The thought of such a separation, where the hope of ever meeting again is excluded, and where there can be no correspondence, is very painful.  It is my opinion, that thousands would escape from slavery who now remain there, but for the strong cords of affection that bind them to their families, relatives and friends.  The daughter is hindered from escaping, by the love she bears her mother, and the father, by the love he bears his children; and so, to the end of the chapter.  I had no relations in Baltimore, and I saw no probability of ever living in the neighborhood of sisters and brothers; but the thought of leaving my friends, was among the strongest obstacles to my running away.  The last two days of the week--Friday and Saturday--were spent mostly in collecting my things together, for my journey.  Having worked four days that week, for my master, I handed him six dollars, on Saturday night. I seldom spent my Sundays at home; and, for fear that something might be discovered in my conduct, I kept up my custom, and absented myself all day.  On Monday, the third day of September, 1838, in accordance with my resolution, I bade farewell to the city of Baltimore, and to that slavery which had been my abhorrence from childhood. 

How I got away--in what direction I traveled--whether by land or by water; whether with or without assistance--must, for reasons already mentioned, remain unexplained.