Frederick Douglass autobiography

I in-
dulged a faint hope that his conversion would lead
him to emancipate his slaves, and that, if he did not
do this, it would, at any rate, make him more kind
and humane.

Before
he commenced whipping Aunt Hester, he took her
into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist,
leaving her neck, shoulders, and back, entirely
naked.

If any one wishes to be im-
pressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let
him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and, on allow-
ance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and
there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that
shall pass through the chambers of his soul, -- and if
he is not thus impressed, it will only be because
"there is no flesh in his obdurate heart."



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I have often been utterly astonished, since I came
to the north, to find persons who could...

At the very
same time, they mutually execrate their masters
when viewed separately.

They are, in the language of the
slave's poet, Whittier, --

"Gone, gone, sold and gone

To the rice swamp dank and lone,

Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings,

Where the noisome insect stings,

Where the fever-demon strews

Poison with the falling dews,

Where the sickly sunbeams glare

Through the hot and misty air: --

Gone, gone, sold and gone

To the rice swamp dank and lone,

From Virginia hills and waters --

Woe is me, my stolen daught...

He was
immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus,
without a moment's warning, he was snatched away,
and forever sundered, from his family and friends,
by a hand more unrelenting than death.

If a slave was convicted of any high
misdemeanor, became unmanageable, or evinced a
determination to run away, he was brought immedi-
ately here, severely whipped, put on board the sloop,
carried to Baltimore, and sold to Austin Woolfolk,
or some other slave-trader, as a warning to the slaves
remaining.

While on
their way, they would make the dense old woods,
for miles around, reverberate with their wild songs,
revealing at once the highest joy and the deepest
sadness.

Mr. Plummer was a miserable drunkard,
a profane swearer, and a savage monster.

He was just proud enough
to demand the most debasing homage of the slave,
and quite servile enough to crouch, himself, at the
feet of the master.

Moreover, slaves
are like other people, and imbibe prejudices quite
common to others.

She now stood fair
for his infernal purpose.

He deemed all such inquiries on the part
of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence
of a restless spirit.

The colonel had to resort to all kinds of stratagems
to keep his slaves out of the garden.

I prefer to be true to myself,
even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others,
rather than to be false, and incur my own abhor-
rence.

I prefer to be true to myself,
even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others,
rather than to be false, and incur my own abhor-
rence.

I have fre-
quently felt her head, and found it nearly covered
with festering sores, caused by the lash of her cruel
mistress.

The num-
ber of houses, too, conspired to give it advantage
over the neighboring farms.

To be accused was to be convicted,
and to be convicted was to be punished; the one



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always following the other with immutable certainty.

If a slave was convicted of any high
misdemeanor, became unmanageable, or evinced a
determination to run away, he was brought immedi-
ately here, severely whipped, put on board the sloop,
carried to Baltimore, and sold to Austin Woolfolk,
or some other slave-trader, as a warning to the slaves
remaining.

Few are willing to incur the odium
attaching to the reputation of being a cruel master;
and above all things, they would not be known as
not giving a slave enough to eat.

Under its in-
fluence, the tender heart became stone, and the
lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like
fierceness.

Never having enjoyed, to any considerable
extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watch-
ful care, I received the tidings of her death with
much the same emotions I should have probably
felt at the death of a stranger.

Henrietta was
about twenty-two years of age, Mary was about four-
teen; and of all the mangled and emaciated creatures
I ever looked upon, these two were the most so.

In entering upon the duties of a
slaveholder, she did not seem to perceive that I sus-
tained to her the relation of a mere chattel, and
that for her to treat me as a human being was not
only wrong, but dangerously so.

Their backs had been made familiar with the
bloody lash, so that they had become callous; mine
was yet tender; for while at Baltimore I got few whip-
pings, and few slaves could boast of a kinder master
and mistress than myself; and the thought of pass-



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ing out of their hands into those of Master Andrew --
a man who, but a few days before, to give me a
sample of his bloody disposition, took my little
brother by the throat, threw him on the ground, and
with the heel of his bo...

He was known to us
all as being a most cruel wretch, -- a common drunk-
ard, who had, by his reckless mismanagement and
profligate dissipation, already wasted a large por-
tion of his father's property.

I did not, when a slave, understand the deep
meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent
songs.

The hearing of those wild notes always de-
pressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sad-
ness.

This bread I used to be-
stow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return,
would give me that more valuable bread of knowl-
edge.

It was pressed upon me by every object within
sight or hearing, animate or inanimate.

The
singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island
might be as appropriately considered as evidence of
contentment and happiness, as the singing of a
slave; the songs of the one and of the other are
prompted by the same emotion.



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III

Colonel Lloyd kept a large and finely cultivated
garden, which afforded almost constant employment
for four men, besides the chief gardener, (Mr.
M'Durmond.)

His presence made it both
the field of blood and of blasphemy.

They seemed to realize the impossibility of touching
TAR without being defiled.

I found it was "the act
of abolishing;" but then I did not know what was
to be abolished.

Slavery soon proved its ability to
divest her of these heavenly qualities.

I
have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of
those songs would do more to impress some minds
with the horrible character of slavery, than the read-
ing of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject
could do.

He was just proud enough
to demand the most debasing homage of the slave,
and quite servile enough to crouch, himself, at the
feet of the master.

He was generally called Captain Anthony -- a title
which, I presume, he acquired by sailing a craft on
the Chesapeake Bay. He was not considered a rich
slaveholder.

They regarded it as evidence of great confidence re-
posed in them by their overseers; and it was on
this account, as well as a constant desire to be out of
the field from under the driver's lash, that they es-
teemed it a high privilege, one worth careful living
for.

There is a vestige of
decency, a sense of shame, that does much to curb
and check those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty so
commonly enacted upon the plantation.

They are, in the language of the
slave's poet, Whittier, --

"Gone, gone, sold and gone

To the rice swamp dank and lone,

Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings,

Where the noisome insect stings,

Where the fever-demon strews

Poison with the falling dews,

Where the sickly sunbeams glare

Through the hot and misty air: --

Gone, gone, sold and gone

To the rice swamp dank and lone,

From Virginia hills and waters --

Woe is me, my stolen daught...

He was one of those who could torture
the slightest look, word, or gesture, on the part of
the slave, into impudence, and would treat it ac-
cordingly.

He deemed all such inquiries on the part
of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence
of a restless spirit.

Prior



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to his conversion, he relied upon his own depravity
to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity;
but after his conversion, he found religious sanction
and support for his slaveholding cruelty.

My city life, he said, had had a very pernicious effect
upon me.

Silvery-headed age and sprightly youth, maids
and matrons, had to undergo the same indelicate
inspection.

He
had given Demby but few stripes, when, to get rid
of the scourging, he ran and plunged himself into a
creek, and stood there at the depth of his shoulders,
refusing to come out.

This, however, is
not considered a very great privation.

I have heard him do so laughingly,
saying, among other things, that he was the only
benefactor of his country in the company, and that
when others would do as much as he had done, we
should be relieved of "the d -- -d niggers."

This is the inevitable result.

From the rising
till the going down of the sun, he was cursing, raving,
cutting, and slashing among the slaves of the field,
in the most frightful manner.

He was cruel enough to in-
flict the severest punishment, artful enough to de-
scend to the lowest trickery, and obdurate enough to
be insensible to the voice of a reproving conscience.

My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct
me, had, in compliance with the advice and direc-
tion of her husband, not only ceased to instruct, but
had set her face against my being instructed by any
one else.

Whether this prophecy
is ever fulfilled or not, it is nevertheless plain that a
very different-looking class of people are springing up
at the south, and are now held in slavery, from those
originally brought to this country from Africa; and
if their increase do no other good, it will do
away the force of the argument, that God cursed
Ham, and therefore American slavery is right.

She was by trade a
weaver; and by constant application to her business,
she had been in a good degree preserved from the
blighting and dehumanizing effects of slavery.

The colonel, after ascertaining where the slave
belonged, rode on; the man also went on about his



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business, not dreaming that he had been conversing
with his master.

The master is fre-
quently compelled to sell this class of his slaves, out
of deference to the feelings of his white wife; and,
cruel as the deed may strike any one to be, for a
man to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers,
it is often the dictate of humanity for him to do so;



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for, unless he does this, he must not only whip them
himself, but must stand by and see one white son
tie up his brother, of but few shades darker com-
plexion than himself, and ply the gory lash...

I consoled myself with
the hope that I should one day find a good chance.

His
other autobiographical works are MY BONDAGE AND
MY FREEDOM and LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK
DOUGLASS, published in 1855 and 1881 respectively.

Moreover, slaves
are like other people, and imbibe prejudices quite
common to others.

I have often been awakened
at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks
of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up
to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she
was literally covered with blood.

It is possible, and even quite probable, that
but for the mere circumstance of being removed
from that plantation to Baltimore, I should have
to-day, instead of being here seated by my own table,
in the enjoyment of freedom and the happiness of
home, writing this Narrative, been confined in the
galling chains of slavery.

Her face was made of heav-
enly smiles, and her voice of tranquil music.

To those songs I trace my first
glimmering conception of the dehumanizing char-
acter of slavery.

Finally,
my benevolent master, to use his own words, "set
her adrift to take care of herself."

The slightest inat-
tention to these was unpardonable, and was visited
upon those, under whose care they were placed, with
the severest punishment; no excuse could shield
them, if the colonel only suspected any want of
attention to his horses -- a supposition which he fre-
quently indulged, and one which, of course, made
the office of old and young Barney a very trying one.

To those songs I trace my first
glimmering conception of the dehumanizing char-
acter of slavery.

I wish I could de-
scribe the rapture that flashed through my soul as I
beheld it.

I shall never forget the ecstasy with which I
received the intelligence that my old master (An-
thony) had determined to let me go to Baltimore,
to live with Mr. Hugh Auld, brother to my old
master's son-in-law, Captain Thomas Auld.

Bad as all slaveholders are, we seldom meet one
destitute of every element of character commanding
respect.

That which to him was a great evil, to be
carefully shunned, was to me a great good, to be
diligently sought; and the argument which he so
warmly urged, against my learning to read, only
served to inspire me with a desire and determina-
tion to learn.

Having already had more than
a taste of them in the house of my old master, and
having endured them there, I very naturally inferred
my ability to endure them elsewhere, and especially
at Baltimore; for I had something of the feeling
about Baltimore that is expressed in the proverb,
that "being hanged in England is preferable to
dying a natural death in Ireland."

I looked for
home elsewhere, and was confident of finding none
which I should relish less than the one which I was
leaving.

She now commenced
to practise her husband's precepts.

A single word
from the white men was enough -- against all our
wishes, prayers, and entreaties -- to sunder forever the
dearest friends, dearest kindred, and strongest ties
known to human beings.

They are, in the language of the
slave's poet, Whittier, --

"Gone, gone, sold and gone

To the rice swamp dank and lone,

Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings,

Where the noisome insect stings,

Where the fever-demon strews

Poison with the falling dews,

Where the sickly sunbeams glare

Through the hot and misty air: --

Gone, gone, sold and gone

To the rice swamp dank and lone,

From Virginia hills and waters --

Woe is me, my stolen daught...

The young man's
name was Ned Roberts, generally called Lloyd's
Ned. Why master was so careful of her, may be
safely left to conjecture.

It was the first large town that I had ever seen, and
though it would look small compared with some of
our New England factory villages, I thought it a
wonderful place for its size -- more imposing even
than the Great House Farm!

He was asked by Colonel
Lloyd and my old master, why he resorted to this
extraordinary expedient.

He was generally called Captain Anthony -- a title
which, I presume, he acquired by sailing a craft on
the Chesapeake Bay. He was not considered a rich
slaveholder.

Cousin Tom, though not
fluent in speech, had inspired me with that desire
by his eloquent description of the place.

I have ever regarded it
as the first plain manifestation of that kind provi-
dence which has ever since attended me, and marked
my life with so many favors.

He could not
come among us without betraying his sympathy for
us, and, stupid as we were, we had the sagacity to
see it.

They regarded it as evidence of great confidence re-
posed in them by their overseers; and it was on
this account, as well as a constant desire to be out of
the field from under the driver's lash, that they es-
teemed it a high privilege, one worth careful living
for.

The men and women slaves received, as
their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of
pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of
corn meal.

In all things
noble which he attempted, his own meanness shone
most conspicuous.

She was nevertheless left a slave -- a slave for
life -- a slave in the hands of strangers; and in their
hands she saw her children, her grandchildren, and
her great-grandchildren, divided, like so many sheep,
without being gratified with the small privilege of a
single word, as to their or her own destiny.