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Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass |
by Frederick Douglass |
Contents |
My Escape from Slavery |
Reconstruction |
Douglass, Frederick. “My Escape from Slavery.” |
The Century Illustrated Magazine 23, n.s. 1 (Nov. 1881): 125-131. |
My Escape from Slavery |
In the first narrative of my experience in slavery, written nearly |
forty years ago, and in various writings since, I have given the public |
what I considered very good reasons for withholding the manner of my |
escape. In substance these reasons were, first, that such publication |
at any time during the existence of slavery might be used by the master |
against the slave, and prevent the future escape of any who might adopt |
the same means that I did. The second reason was, if possible, still |
more binding to silence: the publication of details would certainly |
have put in peril the persons and property of those who assisted. |
Murder itself was not more sternly and certainly punished in the State |
of Maryland than that of aiding and abetting the escape of a slave. |
Many colored men, for no other crime than that of giving aid to a |
fugitive slave, have, like Charles T. Torrey, perished in prison. The |
abolition of slavery in my native State and throughout the country, and |
the lapse of time, render the caution hitherto observed no longer |
necessary. But even since the abolition of slavery, I have sometimes |
thought it well enough to baffle curiosity by saying that while slavery |
existed there were good reasons for not telling the manner of my |
escape, and since slavery had ceased to exist, there was no reason for |
telling it. I shall now, however, cease to avail myself of this |
formula, and, as far as I can, endeavor to satisfy this very natural |
curiosity. I should, perhaps, have yielded to that feeling sooner, had |
there been anything very heroic or thrilling in the incidents connected |
with my escape, for I am sorry to say I have nothing of that sort to |
tell; and yet the courage that could risk betrayal and the bravery |
which was ready to encounter death, if need be, in pursuit of freedom, |
were essential features in the undertaking. My success was due to |
address rather than courage, to good luck rather than bravery. My means |
of escape were provided for me by the very men who were making laws to |
hold and bind me more securely in slavery. |
It was the custom in the State of Maryland to require the free colored |
people to have what were called free papers. These instruments they |
were required to renew very often, and by charging a fee for this |
writing, considerable sums from time to time were collected by the |
State. In these papers the name, age, color, height, and form of the |
freeman were described, together with any scars or other marks upon his |
person which could assist in his identification. This device in some |
measure defeated itself—since more than one man could be found to |
answer the same general description. Hence many slaves could escape by |
personating the owner of one set of papers; and this was often done as |
follows: A slave, nearly or sufficiently answering the description set |
forth in the papers, would borrow or hire them till by means of them he |
could escape to a free State, and then, by mail or otherwise, would |
return them to the owner. The operation was a hazardous one for the |
lender as well as for the borrower. A failure on the part of the |
fugitive to send back the papers would imperil his benefactor, and the |
discovery of the papers in possession of the wrong man would imperil |
both the fugitive and his friend. It was, therefore, an act of supreme |
trust on the part of a freeman of color thus to put in jeopardy his own |
liberty that another might be free. It was, however, not unfrequently |
bravely done, and was seldom discovered. I was not so fortunate as to |
resemble any of my free acquaintances sufficiently to answer the |
description of their papers. But I had a friend—a sailor—who owned a |
sailor’s protection, which answered somewhat the purpose of free |
papers—describing his person, and certifying to the fact that he was a |
free American sailor. The instrument had at its head the American |
eagle, which gave it the appearance at once of an authorized document. |
This protection, when in my hands, did not describe its bearer very |
accurately. Indeed, it called for a man much darker than myself, and |
close examination of it would have caused my arrest at the start. |
In order to avoid this fatal scrutiny on the part of railroad |
officials, I arranged with Isaac Rolls, a Baltimore hackman, to bring |
my baggage to the Philadelphia train just on the moment of starting, |
and jumped upon the car myself when the train was in motion. Had I gone |
into the station and offered to purchase a ticket, I should have been |
instantly and carefully examined, and undoubtedly arrested. In choosing |
this plan I considered the jostle of the train, and the natural haste |
of the conductor, in a train crowded with passengers, and relied upon |
my skill and address in playing the sailor, as described in my |
protection, to do the rest. One element in my favor was the kind |
feeling which prevailed in Baltimore and other sea-ports at the time, |
toward “those who go down to the sea in ships.” “Free trade and |
sailors’ rights” just then expressed the sentiment of the country. In |
my clothing I was rigged out in sailor style. I had on a red shirt and |
a tarpaulin hat, and a black cravat tied in sailor fashion carelessly |
and loosely about my neck. My knowledge of ships and sailor’s talk came |
much to my assistance, for I knew a ship from stem to stern, and from |
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This is a more than 1 million word token dataset consist of Historical black writers who wrote about black emancipation. Include in this datasets are
Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass(8000 word tokens),THREE ADDRESSES BY Fred Douglas(28K word token), Why is the Negro
Lynched?(15K word token) by FREDERICK DOUGLASS, MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM(135Kword token), Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(40K word tokens)
darkwater by W. E.(67K word tokens), GIFT of BLACK FOLK(77K word tokens), John Brown (101K word token), Negro problem(36K word tokens), THE CONSERVATION OF RACES(5k word token),
The Negro(57K word token), The quest of the Fleece(109k), THE SUPPRESSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE(123K word tokens) by W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS,
UP FROM SLAVERY AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY Booker T Washington(77K word tokens).
The evaluation data set consist of The Underground Railroad, by William Still(400K word token)
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