How does douglas porter slaveholders

Nor must he stand upon the order of his going, but go at once. It was against this feeling that Douglass had to contend. He met it often; he was a prominent colored man traveling from place to place. A good part of the time he was in strange cities stopping at strange taverns--that is, when he was allowed to stop.

Time and again has be been Page xi refused accommodation in hotels. Time and again has he been in a strange places with nowhere to lay his head until some kind anti-slavery person would come forward and give him shelter; and as to riding in public conveyances, mean spirited conductors at one time made it a rule to put all colored people, nolens volens , in the smoking car.

Many times was Douglass subjected to this indignity. The writer of this remembers well, because he was present and saw the transaction,--the John Brown meeting in Tremont Temple in , when a violent mob composed of the rough element from the slums of the city, led and encouraged by bankers and brokers came into the hall to break up the meeting. Douglass was presiding; the mob was armed; the police were powerless: the mayor could not or would not do anything.

On came the mob surging through the aisles over benches and upon the platform; the women in the audience became alarmed and fled. The hirelings were prepared to do anything, they had the power and could with impunity. Douglass sat upon the platform with a few chosen spirits, cool and undaunted; the mob had got about and around him; he did not heed their howling nor was he moved by their threats. It was not until their leader, a rich banker, with his followers, had mounted the platform and wrenched the chair from under him that he was dispossessed, by main force and personal violence Douglass resisting all the time they removed him from the platform.

Free speech was violated; Boston was disgraced; but the Chairman of that meeting was not intimidated. It affords me great pleasure to introduce to the public this book, "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. We point with pride to this trio of illustrious names. I bid my fellow country men take new hope and courage; the near future will Page xii bring us other men of worth and genius, and our list of illustrious names will become lengthened. Until that time the duty is to work and wait.

Author's place of birth--Description of country--Its inhabitants-- Genealogical trees--Method of counting time in slave districts--Date of author's birth--Names of grandparents--Their cabin--Home with them--Slave practice of separating mothers from their children-- Author's recollections of his mother--Who was his father?

Author's early home--Its charms--Author's ignorance of "old master"--His gradual perception of the truth concerning him--His relations to Col. Edward Lloyd--Author's removal to "old master's" home--His journey thence--His separation from his grandmother--His grief. Lloyd's plantation--Aunt Katy--Her cruelty and ill-nature--Capt. Increasing acquaintance with old master--Evils of unresisted passion-- Apparent tenderness--A man of trouble--Custom of muttering to himself--Brutal outrage--A drunken overseer--Slaveholder's Impatience--Wisdom of appeal--A base and selfish attempt to break up a courtship.

The author's early reflections on slavery--Aunt Jennie and Uncle Noah --Presentment of one day becoming a freeman--Conflict between an overseer and a slave woman--Advantage of resistance--Death of an overseer--Col. Lloyd's plantation home--Monthly distribution of food--Singing of slaves--An explanation--The slaves' food and clothing --Naked children--Life in the quarter--Sleeping places--not beds-- Deprivation of sleep--Care of nursing babies--Ash cake--Contrast.

Contrasts--Great House luxuries--Its hospitality--Entertainments-- Fault-finding--Shameful humiliation an old and faithful coachman -- William Wilks--Curious incident--Expressed satisfaction not always genuine--Reasons for suppressing the truth. Lloyd--Other horrible murders--No laws for the protection of slaves possible of being enforced. City annoyances--Plantation regrets--My mistress--Her history--Her kindness--My master--His sourness--My comforts--Increased sensitiveness--My occupation--Learning to read--Baneful effects of slave-holding on my dear, good mistress-- Mr.

Hugh forbids Mrs. Hamilton's two slaves--Mrs. Hamilton's cruel treatment of them--Piteous aspect presented by them --No power to come between the slave and slaveholder. Sophia--My hatred of slavery--One Upas tree overshadows us all. Abolitionists spoken of--Eagerness to know the meaning of the word-- Consults the dictionary--Incendiary information--The enigma solved-- "Nat Turner" insurrection--Cholera--Religion--Methodist Minister-- Religious impressions--Father Lawson--His character and occupation --His influence over me--Our mutual attachment--New hopes and aspirations--Heavenly light--Two Irishmen on wharf--Conversation with them--Learning to write--My aims.

Michaels and its inhabitants--Capt. Auld did there--Hopes--Suspicions--The result--Faith and works at variance--Position in the church--Poor Cousin Henny-- Methodist preachers--Their disregard of the slaves--One exception--Sabbath-school--How and by whom broken up--Sad change in my prospects-- Covey, the negro-breaker. Journey to Covey's--Meditations by the way--Covey's house--Family --Awkwardness as a field hand--A cruel beating--Why given-- Description of Covey--First attempt at driving oxen--Hair-breadth escape--Ox and man alike property--Hard labor more effective than the whip for breaking down the spirit--Cunning and trickery of Covey--Family worship--Shocking and indecent contempt for chastity--Great mental agitation--Anguish beyond description.

New Year's thoughts and meditations--Again hired by Freeland--Kindness no compensation for slavery--Incipient steps toward escape --Considerations leading thereto--Hostility to slavery--Solemn vow taken--Plan divulged to slaves--Columbian Orator again--Scheme gains favor--Danger of discovery--Skill of slaveholders--Suspicion and coercion--Hymns with double meaning--Consultation--Password-- Hope and fear--Ignorance of Geography--Imaginary difficulties-- Patrick Henry--Sandy a dreamer--Route to the north mapped out-- Objections--Frauds--Passes--Anxieties--Fear of failure--Strange presentiment--Coincidence--Betrayal--Arrests-- Resistance--Mrs.

Nothing lost in my attempt to run away--Comrades at home--Reasons for sending me away--Return to Baltimore--Tommy changed--Caulking in Gardiner's ship yard--Desperate fight--Its causes--Conflict between white and black labor--Outrage--Testimony--Master Hugh-- Slavery in Baltimore--My condition improves--New associations-- Slaveholder's right to the slave's wages--How to make a discontented slave.

Closing incidents in my "Life as a Slave"--Discontent--Suspicions-- Master's generosity--Difficulties in the way of escape--Plan to obtain money--Allowed to hire my time--A gleam of hope--Attend camp-meeting--Anger of Master Hugh--The result--Plans of escape--Day for departure fixed--Harassing doubts and fears--Painful thoughts of separation from friends.

Reasons for not having revealed the manner of escape--Nothing of romance in the method--Danger--Free Papers--Unjust tax--Protection papers--"Free trade and sailor's rights"--American eagle--Railroad train-- Unobserving conductor--Capt. Danger to be averted--A refuge sought abroad--Voyage on the steamship Cambria--Refusal of first-class passage--Attractions of the forecastle-deck--Hutchinson family--Invited to make a speech-- Southerners feel insulted--Captain threatens to put them in irons-- Experiences abroad--Attentions received--Impressions of different members of Parliament, and of other public men--Contrast with life in America--Kindness of friends--Their purchase of my person, and the gift of the same to myself--My return.

My First Meeting with Capt. Satisfaction and anxiety, new fields of labor opening--Lyceums and colleges soliciting addresses--Literary attractions--Pecuniary gain-- Still pleading for human rights--President Andy Johnson--Colored delegation--Their reply to him--National Loyalist Convention, , and its procession--Not Wanted--Meeting with an old friend--Joy and surprise--The old master's welcome, and Miss Amanda's friendship-- Enfranchisement debated and accomplished--The Negro a citizen.

Auld's admission "had I been in your place, I should have done as you did"--Speech at Easton--The old jail there--Invited to a sail on the revenue cutter Page xxiii Guthrie--Hon. John L. Thomas--Visit to the old plantation--Home of Col. Gerrit Smith and Mr.

Delevan--Experiences at Hotels and on Steamboats and other modes of travel--Hon. Edward Marshall-- Grace Greenwood--Hon. Moses Norris--Rob't J. Ingersoll--Reflections and conclusions--Compensations.

Author's place of birth--Description of country--Its inhabitants-- Genealogical trees--Method of counting time in slave districts-- Date of author's birth--Names of grandparents--Their cabin-- Home with them--Slave practice of separating mothers from their children--Author's recollections of his mother--Who was his father?

IN Talbot County, Eastern Shore, State of Maryland, near Easton, the county town, there is a small district of country, thinly populated, and remarkable for nothing that I know of more than for the worn-out, sandy, desert-like appearance of its soil, the general dilapidation of its farms and fences, the indigent and spiritless character of its inhabitants, and the prevalence of ague and fever.

It was in this dull, flat, and unthrifty district or neighborhood, bordered by the Choptank river, among the laziest and muddiest of streams surrounded by a white population of the lowest order, indolent and drunken to a proverb, and among slaves who, in point of ignorance and indolence, were fully in accord with their surroundings, that I, without any fault of my own, was born, and spent the first years of my childhood.

The reader must not expect me to say much of my family. Genealogical trees did not flourish among slaves. A person of some consequence in civilized society, sometimes designated as father, was literally unknown to slave law and slave practice. I never met with a slave in that part of the country who could tell me with any certainty how old he was.

Few at that time knew anything of the months of the year or of Page 14 the days of the month. They measured the ages of their children by spring-time, winter-time, harvest-time, planting-time, and the like. Masters allowed no questions to be put to them by slaves concerning their ages. Such questions were regarded by the masters as evidence of an impudent curiosity. From certain events, however, the dates of which I have since learned, I suppose myself to have been born in February, My first experience of life, as I now remember it, and I remember it but hazily, began in the family of my grandmother and grandfather, Betsey and Isaac Bailey.

They were considered old settlers in the neighborhood, and from certain circumstances I infer that my grandmother, especially, was held in high esteem, far higher than was the lot of most colored persons in that region. She was a good nurse, and a capital hand at making nets used for catching shad and herring, and was, withal, somewhat famous as a fisherwoman. I have known her to be in the water waist deep, for hours, seine-hauling. She was a gardener as well as a fisherwoman, and remarkable for her success in keeping her seedling sweet potatoes through the months of winter, and easily got the reputation of being born to "good luck.

This reputation was full of advantage to her and her grandchildren, for a good crop, after her planting for the neighbors, brought her a share of the harvest. Whether because she was too old for field service, or because she had so faithfully discharged the duties of her station in early life, I know not, but she enjoyed the high privilege of living in a cabin separate from the quarters, having only the charge of the young children and the burden of her own support imposed upon her.

She esteemed it great good fortune to live so, and took much comfort in having the children. The practice of separating mothers from their children and Page 15 hiring them out at distances too great to admit of their meeting, save at long intervals, was a marked feature of the cruelty and barbarity of the slave system; but it was in harmony with the grand aim of that system, which always and everywhere sought to reduce man to a level with the brute. It had no interest in recognizing or preserving any of the ties that bind families together or to their homes.

My grandmother's five daughters were hired out in this way, and my only recollections of my own mother are of a few hasty visits made in the night on foot, after the daily tasks were over, and when she was under the necessity of returning in time to respond to the driver's call to the field in the early morning. These little glimpses of my mother, obtained under such circumstances and against such odds, meager as they were, are ineffaceably stamped upon my memory.

She was tall and finely proportioned, of dark glossy complexion, with regular features, and amongst the slaves was remarkably sedate and dignified. There is, in "Prichard's Natural History of Man," the head of a figure, on page , the features of which so resemble my mother that I often recur to it with something of the feelings which I suppose others experience when looking upon the likenesses of their own dear departed ones. Of my father I know nothing. Slavery had no recognition of fathers, as none of families.

That the mother was a slave was enough for its deadly purpose. By its law the child followed the condition of its mother. The father might be a freeman and the child a slave. The father might be a white man, glorying in the purity of his Anglo-Saxon blood, and his child ranked with the blackest slaves. Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.

Author's early home--Its charms--Author's ignorance of "old master"--Gradual perception of the truth concerning him--His relations to Col. Edward Lloyd-- Author's removal to "old master's" home--His journey thence--His separation from his grandmother--His grief. Living thus with my grandmother, whose kindness and love stood in place of my mother's, it was some time before I knew myself to be a slave. I knew many other things before I knew that.

Her little cabin had to me the attractions of a palace. Its fence-railed floor--which was equally floor and bedstead--up stairs, and its clay floor down stairs, its dirt and straw chimney, and windowless sides, and that most curious piece of workmanship, the ladder stairway, and the hole so strangely dug in front of the fire-place, beneath which grandmamma placed her sweet potatoes, to keep them from frost in winter, were full of interest to my childish observation.

The squirrels, as they skipped the fences, climbed the trees, or gathered their nuts, were an unceasing delight to me. There, too, right at the side of the hut, stood the old well, with its stately and skyward-pointing beam, so aptly placed between the limbs of what had once been a tree, and so nicely balanced, that I could move it up and down with only one hand, and could get a drink myself without calling for help.

Nor were these all the attractions of the place. At a little distance stood Mr. Lee's mill, where the people came in large numbers to get their corn ground. I can never tell the many things thought and felt, as I sat on the bank and watched that mill, and the turning of its ponderous wheel. The mill-pond, too, had its charms; and with my pin-hook and thread line I could get amusing nibbles if I could catch no fish.

It was not long, however, before I began to learn the sad fact that this house of my childhood belonged not to my dear old grandmother, but to some one I had never seen, and who lived a great distance off. I learned, too, the sadder fact, that not only the home and lot, but that grandmother herself and all the little children around her belonged to a mysterious personage, called by grandmother, with every mark of reverence, "Old Master.

I learned that this old master, whose name seemed ever to be mentioned with fear and shuddering, only allowed the little children to live with grandmother for a limited time, and that as soon as they were big enough they were promptly taken away to live with the said old master. These were distressing revelations indeed. My grandmother was all the world to me, and the thought of being separated from her was a most unwelcome suggestion to my affections and hopes.

This mysterious old master was really a man of some consequence. He owned several farms in Tuckahoe, was the chief clerk and butler on the home plantation of Colonel Lloyd, had overseers as well as slaves on his own farms, and gave directions to the overseers on the farms owned by Colonel Lloyd. Captain Aaron Anthony, for such is the name and title of my old master, lived on Colonel Lloyd's plantation, which was situated on the Wye river, and which was one of the largest, most fertile, and best appointed in the State.

About this plantation and this old master I was most eager to know everything which could be known; and, unhappily for me, all the information I could get concerning him increased my dread of being separated from my grandmother and grandfather. I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.

Everything about the cabin became doubly dear, and I was sure there could be no other spot equal to it on earth. But the time came when I must go, and my grandmother, knowing my fears, in pity Page 18 for them, kindly kept me ignorant of the dreaded moment up to the morning a beautiful summer morning when we were to start, and, indeed, during the whole journey, which, child as I was, I remember as well as if it were yesterday, she kept the unwelcome truth hidden from me. The distance from Tuckahoe to Colonel Lloyd's, where my old master lived, was full twelve miles, and the walk was quite a severe test of the endurance of my young legs.

The journey would have proved too severe for me, but that my dear old grandmother blessings on her memory afforded occasional relief by "toteing" me on her shoulder.

Advanced in years as she was, as was evident from the more than one gray hair which peeped from between the ample and graceful folds of her newly and smoothly ironed bandana turban, grandmother was yet a woman of power and spirit. She was remarkably straight in figure, elastic and muscular in movement.

I seemed hardly to be a burden to her. She would have "toted" me farther, but I felt myself too much of a man to allow it. Yet while I walked I was not independent of her. She often found me holding her skirts lest something should come out of the woods and eat me up. Several old logs and stumps imposed upon me, and got themselves taken for enormous animals. I could plainly see their legs, eyes, ears, and teeth, till I got close enough to see that the eyes were knots, washed white with rain, and the legs were broken limbs, and the ears and teeth only such because of the point from which they were seen.

As the day advanced the heat increased, and it was not until the afternoon that we reached the much dreaded end of the journey. Here I found myself in the midst of a group of children of all sizes and of many colors, black, brown, copper colored, and nearly white. I had not seen so many children before. As a new comer I was an object of special interest. After laughing and yelling around me and playing all sorts of wild tricks they asked me to go out and play with them. This I refused to do.

Grandmamma looked sad, and I could not help feeling that our being there boded no good to me. Page 19 She was soon to lose another object of affection, as she had lost many before.

Affectionately patting me on the head she told me to be a good boy and go out to play with the children. They are "kin to you," she said, "go and play with them. I had never seen them before, and though I had sometimes heard of them and felt a curious interest in them, I really did not understand what they were to me or I to them. Brothers and sisters we were by blood, but slavery had made us strangers. They were already initiated into the mysteries of old master's domicile, and they seemed to look upon me with a certain degree of compassion.

I really wanted to play with them, but they were strangers to me, and I was full of fear that my grandmother might leave for home without taking me with her. Entreated to do so, however, and that, too, by my dear grandmother, I went to the back part of the house to play with them and the other children. Play, however, I did not, but stood with my back against the wall witnessing the playing of the others. At last, while standing there, one of the children, who had been in the kitchen, ran up to me in a sort of roguish glee, exclaiming, "Fed, Fed, grandmamma gone!

Yet, fearing the worst, I ran into the kitchen to see for myself, and lo! I need not tell all that happened now. Almost heart-broken at the discovery, I fell upon the ground and wept a boy's bitter tears, refusing to be comforted. My brother gave me peaches and pears to quiet me, but I promptly threw them on the ground. I had never been deceived before, and something of resentment at this, mingled with my grief at parting with my grandmother. It was now late in the afternoon. The day had been an exciting and wearisome one, and, I know not where, but I suppose I sobbed myself to sleep, and its balm was never more welcome to any wounded soul than to mine.

The reader may be surprised that I relate so minutely an incident apparently Page 20 so trivial and which must have occurred when I was less than seven years old, but as I wish to give a faithful history of my experience in slavery, I cannot withhold a circumstance which at the time affected me so deeply, and which I still remember so vividly.

Besides, this was my first introduction to the realities of the slave system. Lloyd's plantation-Aunt Katy--Her cruelty and ill-nature--Capt. ONCE established on the home plantation of Col. Lloyd--I was with the children there, left to the tender mercies of Aunt Katy, a slave woman who was to my master what he was to Col. Disposing of us in classes or sizes, he left to Aunt Katy all the minor details concerning our management.

She was a woman who never allowed herself to act greatly within the limits of delegated power, no matter how broad that authority might be. Ambitious of old master's favor, ill-tempered and cruel by nature, she found in her present position an ample field for the exercise of her ill-omened qualities. She had a strong hold upon old master, for she was a first-rate cook, and very industrious. She was therefore greatly favored by him--and as one mark of his favor she was the only mother who was permitted to retain her children around her, and even to these, her own children, she was often fiendish in her brutality.

Cruel, however, as she sometimes was to her own children, she was not destitute of maternal feeling, and in her instinct to satisfy their demands for food, she was often guilty of starving me and the other children.

Want of food was my chief trouble during my first summer here. Captain Anthony, instead of allowing a given quantity of food to each slave, committed the allowance for all to Aunt Katy, to be divided by her, after cooking, amongst us. The allowance consisted of coarse corn meal, not very abundant, Page 22 and which by passing through Aunt Katy's hands, became more slender still for some of us.

I have often been so pinched with hunger, as to dispute with old "Nep," the dog, for the crumbs which fell from the kitchen table. Many times have I followed with eager step, the waiting-girl when she shook the table-cloth, to get the crumbs and small bones flung out for the dogs and cats. It was a great thing to have the privilege of dipping a piece of bread into the water in which meat had been boiled--and the skin taken from the rusty bacon was a positive luxury.

With this description of the domestic arrangements of my new home, I may here recount a circumstance which is deeply impressed on my memory, as affording a bright gleam of a slave-mother's love, and the earnestness of a mother's care.

I had offended Aunt Katy. I do not remember in what way, for my offences were numerous in that quarter, greatly depending upon her moods as to their heinousness, and she had adopted her usual mode of punishing me: namely, making me go all day without food. For the first hour or two after dinner time, I succeeded pretty well in keeping up my spirits; but as the day wore away, I found it quite impossible to do so any longer.

Sundown came, but no bread; and in its stead came the threat from Aunt Katy, with a scowl well suited to its terrible import, that she would starve the life out of me. Brandishing her knife, she chopped off the heavy slices of bread for the other children, and put the loaf away, muttering all the while her savage designs upon myself. Against this disappointment, for I was expecting that her heart would relent at last, I made an extra effort to maintain my dignity, but when I saw the other children around me with satisfied faces, I could stand it no longer.

I went out behind the kitchen wall and cried like a fine fellow. When wearied with this, I returned to the kitchen, sat by the fire and brooded over my hard lot.

I was too hungry to sleep. While I sat in the corner, I caught sight of an ear of Indian corn upon an upper shelf. I watched my chance and got it; and shelling off a few grains, I put it back again. I did this at the risk of getting a brutal thumping, for Aunt Katy could beat as well as starve me. My corn was not long in roasting, and I eagerly pulled it from the ashes, and placed it upon a stool in a clever little pile.

I began to help myself, when who but my own dear mother should come in. The scene which followed is beyond my power to describe. The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need, found himself in the strong protecting arms his mother. I have before spoken my mother's dignified and impressive manner. I shall never forget the indescribable expression of her countenance when I told her that Aunt Katy had said she would starve the life out of me.

There was deep and tender pity in her glance at me, and a fiery indignation at Aunt Katy at the same moment, and while she took the corn from me, and gave in its stead a large ginger cake, she read Aunt Katy a lecture which was never forgotten. That night I learned as I had never learned before, that I was not only a child, but somebody's child. I was grander upon my mother's knee than a king upon his throne. But my triumph was short. I dropped off to sleep, and waked in the morning to find my mother gone and myself at the mercy again of the virago in my master's kitchen, whose fiery wrath was my constant dread.

My mother had walked twelve miles to see me, and had the same distance to travel over again before the morning sunrise. I do not remember ever seeing her again. Her death soon ended the little communication that had existed between us, and with it, I believe, a life full of weariness and heartfelt sorrow. To me it has ever been a grief that I knew my mother so little, and have so few of her words treasured in my remembrance. I have since learned that she was the only one of all the colored people of Tuckahoe who could read.

How she acquired this knowledge I know not, for Tuckahoe was the last place in the world where she would have been likely to find facilities for learning. I can therefore fondly and proudly ascribe to her, an earnest love of knowledge. Page 24 That a field-hand should learn to read in any slave State is remarkable, but the achievements of my mother, considering the place and circumstances, was very extraordinary.

Charlotte died in Get your free website from Spanglefish. Ross Peter Fairbairn Pl. Part of spanglefish. For Anyone. For Free. A binary set of categories has the potential to invite unwarranted similarities and differences between societies. By assigning a numerical value to each of these criteria and adding them together, Lenski produces a single integer that expresses his evaluation of the intensification of slavery across several test cases.

By placing societies on a scale and by making its assessment through a broader set of criteria than Finley admitted, it removes the issues inherent in his binary model. What consequently amounts, in my opinion, to an ahistorically extreme description of the consequences of owning human beings true of course in many, but not all, cases should not be treated as a definition. He argues that Sparta, conversely, was fundamentally different because of its exploitation of a categorically different servile group, the helots.

However, if there was a fundamental difference between the helots and the slaves of other poleis , it was not one which was recognised by contemporary Greeks, and a fragment of Ephorus suggests that helots could be privately sold FGrH 70 F , which undermines any rights over property which the helots may be said to have had. Hunt acknowledges these issues, but stresses the actual likelihood of a given helot being sold as an issue of importance here.

However, Harper and Scheidel remain sceptical about the connection between large-scale slavery and strong notions of individual freedom first posited by Finley and more recently argued by Patterson.

They offer an alternative narrative, couched in purely economic terms, which sees slaves as commodified persons, and thereby the rise of a slave society as resulting from a high demand for and supply of this particular commodity.

They then provide a chronological overview of the rise and continuity of large-scale slavery across the Roman Empire until the plague of Justinian. There is much overlap between the subjects of both, and a full demonstration of the model in a single place would have been preferable. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless. Institutional Login.

LOG IN. Slavery and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity. In this Book. Additional Information. Slavery and sexuality in the ancient world are well researched on their own, yet rarely have they been examined together. This volume is the first to explore the range of roles that sex played in the lives of enslaved people in antiquity beyond prostitution, bringing together scholars of both Greece and Rome to consider important and complex issues.

Chapters address a wealth of art, literature, and drama to analyze a wide range of issues, including gendered power dynamics, sexual violence in slave revolts, same-sex relations between free and enslaved people, and the agency of assault victims.