Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
horribly mangled in other respects. The facts in the case were these:
Until a very little while after I went there, white and black
ship-carpenters worked side by side, and no one seemed to see any
impropriety in it. All hands seemed to be very well satisfied. Many of
the black carpenters were freemen. Things seemed to be going on very
well. All at once, the white carpenters knocked off, and said they
would not work with free colored workmen. Their reason for this, as
alleged, was, that if free colored carpenters were encouraged, they
would soon take the trade into their own hands, and poor white men
would be thrown out of employment. They therefore felt called upon at
once to put a stop to it. And, taking advantage of Mr. Gardner’s
necessities, they broke off, swearing they would work no longer, unless
he would discharge his black carpenters. Now, though this did not
extend to me in form, it did reach me in fact. My fellow-apprentices
very soon began to feel it degrading to them to work with me. They
began to put on airs, and talk about the “niggers” taking the country,
saying we all ought to be killed; and, being encouraged by the
journeymen, they commenced making my condition as hard as they could,
by hectoring me around, and sometimes striking me. I, of course, kept
the vow I made after the fight with Mr. Covey, and struck back again,
regardless of consequences; and while I kept them from combining, I
succeeded very well; for I could whip the whole of them, taking them
separately. They, however, at length combined, and came upon me, armed
with sticks, stones, and heavy handspikes. One came in front with a
half brick. There was one at each side of me, and one behind me. While
I was attending to those in front, and on either side, the one behind
ran up with the handspike, and struck me a heavy blow upon the head. It
stunned me. I fell, and with this they all ran upon me, and fell to
beating me with their fists. I let them lay on for a while, gathering
strength. In an instant, I gave a sudden surge, and rose to my hands
and knees. Just as I did that, one of their number gave me, with his
heavy boot, a powerful kick in the left eye. My eyeball seemed to have
burst. When they saw my eye closed, and badly swollen, they left me.
With this I seized the handspike, and for a time pursued them. But here
the carpenters interfered, and I thought I might as well give it up. It
was impossible to stand my hand against so many. All this took place in
sight of not less than fifty white ship-carpenters, and not one
interposed a friendly word; but some cried, “Kill the damned nigger!
Kill him! kill him! He struck a white person.” I found my only chance
for life was in flight. I succeeded in getting away without an
additional blow, and barely so; for to strike a white man is death by
Lynch law,—and that was the law in Mr. Gardner’s ship-yard; nor is
there much of any other out of Mr. Gardner’s ship-yard.
I went directly home, and told the story of my wrongs to Master Hugh;
and I am happy to say of him, irreligious as he was, his conduct was
heavenly, compared with that of his brother Thomas under similar
circumstances. He listened attentively to my narration of the
circumstances leading to the savage outrage, and gave many proofs of
his strong indignation at it. The heart of my once overkind mistress
was again melted into pity. My puffed-out eye and blood-covered face
moved her to tears. She took a chair by me, washed the blood from my
face, and, with a mother’s tenderness, bound up my head, covering the
wounded eye with a lean piece of fresh beef. It was almost compensation
for my suffering to witness, once more, a manifestation of kindness
from this, my once affectionate old mistress. Master Hugh was very much
enraged. He gave expression to his feelings by pouring out curses upon
the heads of those who did the deed. As soon as I got a little the
better of my bruises, he took me with him to Esquire Watson’s, on Bond
Street, to see what could be done about the matter. Mr. Watson inquired
who saw the assault committed. Master Hugh told him it was done in Mr.
Gardner’s ship-yard at midday, where there were a large company of men
at work. “As to that,” he said, “the deed was done, and there was no
question as to who did it.” His answer was, he could do nothing in the
case, unless some white man would come forward and testify. He could
issue no warrant on my word. If I had been killed in the presence of a
thousand colored people, their testimony combined would have been
insufficient to have arrested one of the murderers. Master Hugh, for
once, was compelled to say this state of things was too bad. Of course,
it was impossible to get any white man to volunteer his testimony in my
behalf, and against the white young men. Even those who may have
sympathized with me were not prepared to do this. It required a degree
of courage unknown to them to do so; for just at that time, the
slightest manifestation of humanity toward a colored person was
denounced as abolitionism, and that name subjected its bearer to
frightful liabilities. The watchwords of the bloody-minded in that
region, and in those days, were, “Damn the abolitionists!” and “Damn
the niggers!” There was nothing done, and probably nothing would have
been done if I had been killed. Such was, and such remains, the state
of things in the Christian city of Baltimore.
Master Hugh, finding he could get no redress, refused to let me go back
again to Mr. Gardner. He kept me himself, and his wife dressed my wound
till I was again restored to health. He then took me into the ship-yard
of which he was foreman, in the employment of Mr. Walter Price. There I
was immediately set to calking, and very soon learned the art of using
my mallet and irons. In the course of one year from the time I left Mr.
Gardner’s, I was able to command the highest wages given to the most
experienced calkers. I was now of some importance to my master. I was
bringing him from six to seven dollars per week. I sometimes brought
him nine dollars per week: my wages were a dollar and a half a day.
After learning how to calk, I sought my own employment, made my own
contracts, and collected the money which I earned. My pathway became
much more smooth than before; my condition was now much more
comfortable. When I could get no calking to do, I did nothing. During
these leisure times, those old notions about freedom would steal over
me again. When in Mr. Gardner’s employment, I was kept in such a
perpetual whirl of excitement, I could think of nothing, scarcely, but
my life; and in thinking of my life, I almost forgot my liberty. I have
observed this in my experience of slavery,—that whenever my condition
was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only
increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain
my freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is
necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his
moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the
power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in
slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be
brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.
I was now getting, as I have said, one dollar and fifty cents per day.
I contracted for it; I earned it; it was paid to me; it was rightfully
my own; yet, upon each returning Saturday night, I was compelled to
deliver every cent of that money to Master Hugh. And why? Not because
he earned it,—not because he had any hand in earning it,—not because I
owed it to him,—nor because he possessed the slightest shadow of a
right to it; but solely because he had the power to compel me to give
it up. The right of the grim-visaged pirate upon the high seas is
exactly the same.
CHAPTER XI
I now come to that part of my life during which I planned, and finally
succeeded in making, my escape from slavery. But before narrating any
of the peculiar circumstances, I deem it proper to make known my
intention not to state all the facts connected with the transaction. My
reasons for pursuing this course may be understood from the following:
First, were I to give a minute statement of all the facts, it is not
only possible, but quite probable, that others would thereby be
involved in the most embarrassing difficulties. Secondly, such a
statement would most undoubtedly induce greater vigilance on the part
of slaveholders than has existed heretofore among them; which would, of
course, be the means of guarding a door whereby some dear brother
bondman might escape his galling chains. I deeply regret the necessity
that impels me to suppress any thing of importance connected with my
experience in slavery. It would afford me great pleasure indeed, as
well as materially add to the interest of my narrative, were I at
liberty to gratify a curiosity, which I know exists in the minds of
many, by an accurate statement of all the facts pertaining to my most
fortunate escape. But I must deprive myself of this pleasure, and the
curious of the gratification which such a statement would afford. I
would allow myself to suffer under the greatest imputations which
evil-minded men might suggest, rather than exculpate myself, and
thereby run the hazard of closing the slightest avenue by which a
brother slave might clear himself of the chains and fetters of 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._ I honor those good men
and women for their noble daring, and applaud them for willingly
subjecting themselves to bloody persecution, by openly avowing their
participation in the escape of slaves. I, however, can see very little
good resulting from such a course, either to themselves or the slaves
escaping; while, upon the other hand, I see and feel assured that those
open declarations are a positive evil to the slaves remaining, who are
seeking to escape. They do nothing towards enlightening the slave,
whilst they do much towards enlightening the master. They stimulate him
to greater watchfulness, and enhance his power to capture his slave. We
owe something to the slave south of the line as well as to those north
of it; and in aiding the latter on their way to freedom, we should be
careful to do nothing which would be likely to hinder the former from
escaping from slavery. I would keep the merciless slaveholder
profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave. I
would leave him to imagine himself surrounded by myriads of invisible
tormentors, ever ready to snatch from his infernal grasp his trembling
prey. Let him be left to feel his way in the dark; let darkness
commensurate with his crime hover over him; and let him feel that at
every step he takes, in pursuit of the flying bondman, he is running
the frightful risk of having his hot brains dashed out by an invisible
agency. Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by
which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother. But enough of
this. I will now proceed to the statement of those facts, connected
with my escape, for which I am alone responsible, and for which no one
can be made to suffer but myself.
In the early part of the year 1838, I became quite restless. I could
see no reason why I should, at the end of each week, pour the reward of
my toil into the purse of my master. When I carried to him my weekly
wages, he would, after counting the money, look me in the face with a
robber-like fierceness, and ask, “Is this all?” He was satisfied with
nothing less than the last cent. He would, however, when I made him six