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READER RESPONSES, 1881-93
1059

but religious (?) man, a noted Slave-breaker, who very soon found some pretext
for giving him

HIS FIRST FLOGGING.

"He ordered me to take [94.31~97.28] man transformed to a brute!"

After six months of this treatment his strength gave way, and he fell down faint-
ing at his work. This is how Covey proceeded to rouse him from his fainting fit: -----

"He gave me a savage [ 100.33-101.9] the headache, I'll cure you.""

Disgusted with this treatment, he ran away to his real master, but this scoundrel
sent him back to finish the twelve months for which he was hired to Covey. He was
saved from further punishment by his strength and courage, for when the "breaker"
flew at him on his return, and attempted to cut him up with a cow-hide, the worm
turned. A fierce battle for two hours, resulted in Covey's discomfiture, and he never
laid hands on him again.

A futile attempt to escape resulted in imprisonment and being set to work at
ship-caulking in Baltimore. But the white apprentices would not work with him, and
one day four of them set upon him, and in the presence of fifty white men, pounded
him to a jelly and gouged his eye nearly out.

After this better times came, and he was allowed to work by piece, giving his
master every cent that he earned. His soul rebelled at this. and he began to plan his
escape--- fix as he himself remarks. "It is often when a Slave is well-off, that he
longs most for freedom." according to that law that seems to wish ever to scale a
higher peak when one has been already conquered. When a slave is really down-
trodden, and is ever writhing under the lash, his manhood is flogged out of him, and
he is too cowed and broken to think of flight.

HE ESCAPES FROM BONDAGE.

On the 3rd September. 1838. being about 21 years old, Frederick Douglass
made his escape from Slavery. There was little romance in the manner by which he
accomplished this great event of his life. A staunch sailor friend lent him a United
States pass, by means of which he passed swiftly by rail from the land of bondage
to the free air of the North.

In New York some benernlent Quaker gentlemen put him on the "Underground
Railroad." and passed him on to New Bedford. Massachusetts, where he was safe.
Here. dropping his old name of Frederick Bailey, he assumed that of Frederick
Douglass. which he still bears and has borne for 44 years. and which he has made
truly famous.

In New Bedford he worked hard and well with his strong hands, and supported
his wife. whom he had married in New York. She was a free-coloured woman, and
his early love.

HIS FIRST APPEARANCE IN PUBLIC.

In 1841 a Grand Anti-Slavery Convention was held in Nantucket, under the
auspices of William Lloyd Garrison and his friends. Douglass was brought to this
great gathering by Mr. Coffin. and induced to speak in public for the first time.

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