Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

At the age of six, Douglass is relocated from his grandmother’s cabin to the big plantation at Wye. His biographer writes, “Most strikingly, Douglass portrayed this childhood memory as an initiation into the separation and abandonment at the heart of slavery” (19). He never sees his grandmother again, but he is reunited with siblings and cousins who are strangers to him.

Douglass absorbs the atmosphere of the big plantation with all its horrors and wonders. In later years, he writes in great detail about the slave society in which Black men, women, and children live and die at the whim of their masters. He witnesses atrocities on a daily basis that will later haunt his writing. The author writes, “His great indictment of slavery came first and foremost from the accumulated injury of his own story” (24-25). During these years, Douglass is fortunate enough to become the friend and playmate of Daniel Lloyd, the plantation owner’s son. Lucretia Auld, Anthony’s daughter, also takes a liking to him and feeds him treats when he sings under her window.

When Douglass is eight, Lucretia informs him that he has been assigned to the household of her brother-in-law, Hugh Auld. He will act as a companion to Hugh’s son Tommy and will move to their home in Baltimore. Once there, Douglass fits into the Auld household easily. His new mistress, Sophia, teaches him to read. Hugh later forbids his wife to teach Douglass to write, fearing this knowledge will make the slave discontented with his lot in life. This ban makes Douglass realize that his best means of escaping slavery is through literacy: “He discovered that most precious thing—his mind. And he learned just how much his enslavers needed his mind as they struggled to suppress it” (41).

Douglass befriends some White children living on the street in Baltimore and pursues his studies with them. He eventually buys a copy of The Columbian Orator, a compendium of literature, poems, political essays, and an elocution manual, all aimed at encouraging democratic thinking. Blight writes, “With such stories about democratized education and ethnic pluralism, it was as if Frederick Bailey had landed in a modern multicultural classroom in the midst of a slave state” (45).

In 1827, Douglass is called back to the Wye Plantation when Aaron Anthony dies. He is to be sold along with more than 20 other slaves from Anthony’s estate. Some of his kin are sold to plantations in the Deep South. Douglass miraculously escapes this fate because he has now become the property of Thomas Auld through his deceased wife, Lucretia. Thomas decides to send Douglass back to his brother Hugh’s house in Baltimore.

During his teenage years, Douglass continues his studies and finds himself attracted to religion through the influence of Black preachers in the area. One preacher is a wagon driver, or drayman, named Lawson: “Lawson gave Douglass two priceless gifts. One was faith; the other was the insatiable desire for knowledge through a love of words” (54). Lawson is convinced that Douglass has some great destiny ahead of him. Around this time, the Nat Turner slave rebellion occurs, fueling Douglass’s hopes that the country is changing for the better. He believes the abolition of slavery is on the horizon.

Sadly, the 16-year-old Douglass is recalled to Thomas Auld’s farm after his master has a falling out with his brother Hugh. During this time, Douglass works as a field hand, but his rebellious manner causes his master to hire him out for a year to the farmstead of Edward Covey. Known as a slave-breaker, Covey systematically attempts to destroy Douglass’s spirit. The two men eventually have an epic fistfight, with Douglass emerging as the winner: “He had bested the tyrant; he now possessed an inner freedom and an outward pride” (65).

Following his stint on Covey’s farm, Douglass is again hired out for a year to a local tobacco farmer named Freeland, who is a less sadistic master. Douglass gained respect among the local slaves for besting Covey, and they seek his advice. He soon creates a Sunday school and assembles his first group of nascent abolitionists from among his pupils. It doesn’t take long for the group to hatch an escape plan, but one of their number betrays them. Douglass’s master is furious, but he doesn’t sell the rebellious slave down the river. Instead, he sends Douglass back to Baltimore to live with Hugh’s family. Thomas also agrees to free the slave on his 25th birthday if he can keep out of trouble and learn a trade.

Back in Baltimore, Douglass learns the shipyard trade of a caulker. During this time, more White immigrants move to the city, and Douglass gets into several altercations with them. He recognizes that the economic system plays one class against the other. The author writes, “The ‘white slave’ and the ‘black slave’ were both robbed, one by a single master, and the other by the entire slave system” (77).

Over time, friction grows between Douglass and Hugh Auld. During the same period, Douglass meets a free woman named Anna Murray, to whom he becomes engaged. Frustrated by his lack of control over his own destiny, Douglass hatches a new escape plan. Disguised as a sailor and using forged identity papers, he succeeds in fleeing to New York.

After his arrival in New York, Douglass changes his Bailey surname to avoid capture. He finds a safe harbor among the local abolitionist community and sends word for Anna to join him. The two are married and set out to make a new life for themselves in New Bedford, Massachusetts.