Читать книгу Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass - Страница 11

Douglass eventually got another chance in 1838. After an altercation with his owner about an unapproved absence at a religious camp meeting, he was even more determined to escape. With Anna's help, who provided him with a sailor's outfit and money for travel, he was able to board a train north and then take a steamboat to Pennsylvania, an anti-slavery city. From there he made it to a safe house in New York City belonging to black abolitionist David Ruggles.

Soon after, Murray joined Douglass in New York and the couple were married. They settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a whaling town that was also a center of abolitionist activity and where many former slaves had relocated. The couple were helped by Nathan Johnson, a successful businessman and abolitionist who had bought his freedom. To celebrate his liberty, Frederick (who was still known as Frederick Bailey) let Johnson choose a new last name for him. Johnson, who had been reading Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake (which features characters from the Scottish Douglas family) suggested Douglass. The men may also have been thinking of Grace Douglass, a prominent African American abolitionist at the time.

Anna Murray Douglass c. 1860. Photographer unknown

The northern states had started the process of ending slavery during the American Revolution, so the practice no longer existed there. Nevertheless, racial prejudice and discrimination dominated social interaction between the races. In New Bedford, Douglass wanted to work as a ship caulker as he had in Maryland, but the white workers banned him because of his color. Douglass also found that white churches were not welcoming, so he joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and eventually became a licensed lay preacher, but was never ordained. His roles included church sexton, Sunday School superintendent, and steward. Adjusting to the new racial climate, Douglass was able to obtain regular work as a laborer on the docks.

He voraciously read newspapers but especially The Liberator, edited by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and largely funded by free African Americans. Garrison and a small army of abolition orators and lecturers regularly spoke out against slavery.