Rachel Lippert

Natalie Logan

Zack Reed

Zach Sellards

May 12th, 2011

1836Douglass makes an

escape plan but is

discovered, jailed, and

then finally released.

He returns to work for

the Auld’s in Baltimore

Hired out to work as a

caulker in a Baltimore

shipyard.

The knowledge he gains

there helps him escape

slavery two years later.

Acquire free papers that were required of all freed slavesDepart September 3, 1838Train ride to Susquehanna River, to be

crossed via ferryRide a northbound train to Wilmington to

board a steamboat to PhiladelphiaFind a new life and work in New York, a

“free” state

Meets Anna Murray, a freed house-maid, after joining the East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society, a debating club of free black men

Douglass and Murray fall in love and Douglass borrows money from Anna in order to purchase a train ticket

Also meets an African-American sailor from whom he obtains seaman’s protection certificate that matches a description similar to his own

While on the train Douglass is asked to produce documentation proving his freedom

Conductor: "I suppose you have your free papers?"

Douglass: "No sir; I never carry my free papers to sea with me."

Conductor: "But you have something to show that you are a freeman, haven't you?"

Douglass: "Yes, sir, I have a paper with the American Eagle on it, and that will carry

me around the world."

The papers that Douglass had were not actual free papers, and they did not exactly describe him too accurately

While on the ferry crossing the Susquehanna River, Douglass is almost discovered by another black man

A man named Nichols who is a hand on the boat “insisted upon knowing [him], and asking [him] dangerous questions as to where I was going, when I was coming back, etc.”

Later while riding the train Douglass saw several people that he recognized

Douglass states that had one man, a Captain McGowan whose ship he had worked on in Baltimore, if he had simply looked out his train window at him, he would have been easily spotted and turned in to any slave trappers

Another time Douglass encounters a German blacksmith who he knew well, but the blacksmith, who despite recognizing him does not report him escaping

Douglass rides the steamboat up the Delaware River until he reaches Philadelphia and is finally in the free North

From here he asks for directions to New York and finds his way further north

Douglass met up with a friend, William Dixon who had previously escaped from slavery and fled North

Dixon tells him that even in the free state of New York there were dangers; other black men would be hired to betray fugitive slaves by gaining their trust, and colored boarding houses and places of business were often monitored by slave captors

Douglass marries Anna Murray and they move to Massachusetts where he finds work as an unskilled laborer

Eventually he becomes a preacher at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, sparking the beginnings of his anti-slavery and abolitionist workings