By: Ryann Linthicum
Fredrick Douglass was a hero in many cases. He was the son of an African-American women named Harriet Bailey and a white slaveholder. He was born in about 1818 in Tuckahoe, Maryland. Frederick Douglass was separated from his mother when he was an infant; he had never gotten the chance to know her, because he was so young. His mother would sometimes travel twelve miles on foot just to see Frederick Douglass, but it was only for short periods of time. Frederick was about seven years old when he was informed his mother had passed away, but he was not that affected by it because he was never really given the chance to get to know her. Frederick was first a slave to Captain Anthony. He realized slavery when he saw his master whip his Aunt Hester. He was scared when he saw this. He was worried that he would be the next one to be whipped. Captain Anthony, his two sons and one daughter all lived on Colonel Lloyd's plantation. Colonel Lloyd was very rich.He had hundreds of slaves and he did not even know some of them. Frederick Douglass was to small to work in the field so some of the jobs he had were easier then the ones of an older age. He spent most of his time helping Colonel Lloyd find his birds after he had shot them and because of their connection, Colonel Lloyd would sometimes protect Frederick.
Frederick was about seven or eight when he left Colonel Lloyd to go to Baltimore to live with Mr. Hugh Auld. When he arrived to his new home Mr. and Mrs. Auld greeted him, and then he was given little Thomas. He also was given a new mistress, Ms. Sophia Auld. He was the only slave from Colonel Lloyd to go to Baltimore. After living there for a while Mrs. Auld started to teach Frederick the letters a, b, and c, and she started teaching him how to spell small words. After some time of this Mr. Auld found out and told Mrs. Auld all of the consequences that go along with teaching a slave how to read and write. This made Frederick understand the difference from slavery to freedom. This did not stop him from learning how to read, it encouraged him to learn how to read.
By now Frederick had lived with them for about seven years. He, for the most part, had taught himself how to read. In Frederick's free time he would hang out with the poor white kids that lived around that area. He talked to them a lot about slavery. The fact that Frederick would be a slave for life sometimes scared him. Frederick found a book one day called The Columbian Orator. It taught him about the understandings of slavery and how powerful human rights were. It gave him a different view of the conditions he was in, that he knew he would never be able to escape from.
He was planning to run away, but he first wanted to learn how to write. He learned by being in Durgin and Baliey's shipyard, learning the letters that were written on the wood. He also used Thomas's copy books, that he no longer needed and rewrote the letters that Thomas had wrote.
Frederick soon found out that his masters youngest son Richard died, and about three years and six months later Captain Anthony died. Because of this Frederick had to go leave Baltimore, and go back. After being there for a few weeks he realized how good of a life he had, in Baltimore. He was given to Mrs. Lucretia and she sent him back to Baltimore to live in the family of master Hugh. Just after going to Baltimore Lucretia died, and after that Andrew died. The land was all given to strangers. Thomas got married then to his second wife, and he took Frederick to live with him at St. Michael's. After this it made him more determined to run away. In March of 1832 he went to live with Thomas. He became mean and did not give his slaves enough to eat. So, Frederick sometimes would let his horse out, then he would have to chase it about five miles down from St. Michael's, where Master William Hamilton would feed him enough. This made Thomas very mad and he lent Frederick to a man named Edward Covey, who was known to "break" slaves. He lived with Mr. Covey for one year. Mr. Covey was different, though, of all the other slave holders, he did work with his hands. Just a few months with Mr. Covey, and Frederick had been broken and tamed. He continued to break down Frederick and finally, Frederick reacts to it, and fights Mr. Covey, and the remaining time that he has to spend with him, Mr. Covey does not lay a finger on him.
In January of 1834, Frederick is sent to live with Mr. William Freeland. Mr. Freeland was a good master that treated the slaves fairly. Frederick starts trying to get some of the other slaves, to teach them how to read, but soon more and more slaves start to hear about this and Frederick starts to teach all the other slaves to read and write by teaching at a Sabbath school. Later on, after being with Mr. Freeland for another year, Frederick just wanted to be free. So, on the Sunday before Easter, Frederick and a few other slaves planned to escape and become free. That morning they end up getting caught and Frederick was sent back to Baltimore to go return to Master Thomas Auld. All of the slaves that tried to escape were put in jail, but later on all of the slaves were sent home, except for Frederick. Frederick was then sent to a shipbuilder named William Gardner. Frederick, one day, gets attacked by a few white men. Frederick is not aloud to fight back, or serious consequences occur for hurting a white man. Frederick was then learning caulking under Walter Price, who gives him the highest payment aloud, but then Frederick gave all of that money to Mr. Auld. Yet on some occasions were Frederick made more Mr. Auld would give him a few cents to reward him for all of his hard work.
Master Thomas Auld then visits Baltimore and Frederick asks him if he can do his own work, and Master Thomas said no. About two months later Frederick then asks Mr. Auld if he can do work of his own, he agrees and lets him, but on one condition, that Frederick has to pay Mr. Auld three dollars at the end of every week, no matter what. Frederick liked this freedom, yet one week in August Frederick is at a meeting ten miles out from Baltimore and can not get Mr. Auld the money until the following day. Mr. Auld is very angry and the following week, Frederick does no work, so he again does not have the money. Then Frederick decides to try a second escape on September third. He continued to work even harder then before so Mr. Auld would not get any ideas about what he was about to do. He started to feel uncomfortable about leaving, and he was afraid of failing, but he did it and escaped to New York. He did not realize the difference there would be and he know that he could trust no one, but he was helped by Mr. David Ruggles. He told Frederick that is was no longer safe to stay there and that he and Anna should go to Massachusetts to continue his job as a caulker. The next three years Frederick works at a lot of different jobs. He then had earned the amount of money he needed to write in the Liberator. Later on, Frederick goes to a place where he is asked to speak about his experiences with slavery. Frederick Douglass was a hero.
My Reaction: This was a very interesting book that gave me a different view of slavery. He had a very rough life but he worked hard and he was able to become free. This is a good book to show you about perseverance and determination. I would have to say I liked the book Anne Frank better because it was a little more exciting.
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