The Slave Years
Frederick Baily was born a slave in February 1818 on Holmes Hill
Farm, near the town of Easton on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The
farm was part of an estate owned by Aaron Anthony, who also managed
the plantations of Edward Lloyd V, one of the wealthiest men in
Maryland. The main Lloyd Plantation was near the eastern side
of Chesapeake Bay, 12 miles from Holmes Hill Farm, in a home Anthony
had built near the Lloyd mansion, was where Frederick's first
master lived.
Frederick's mother, Harriet Baily, worked the cornfields surrounding
Holmes Hill. He knew little of his father except that the man
was white. As a child, he had heard rumors that the master, Aaron
Anthony, had sired him. Because Harriet Baily was required to
work long hours in the fields, Frederick had been sent to live
with his grandmother, Betsey Baily. Betsy Baily lived in a cabin
a short distance from Holmes Hill Farm. Her job was to look after
Harriet's children until they were old enough to work. Frederick's
mother visited him when she could, but he had only a hazy memory
of her. He spent his childhood playing in the woods near his grandmother's
cabin. He did not think of himself as a slave during these years.
Only gradually did Frederick learn about a person his grandmother
would refer to as Old Master and when she spoke of Old Master
it was with certain fear.
At age 6, Frederick's grandmother had told him that they were
taking a long journey. They set out westward, with Frederick clinging
to his grandmother's skirt with fear and uncertainty They had
approached a large elegant home, the Lloyd Plantation, where several
children were playing on the grounds. Betsy Baily had pointed
out 3 children which were his brother Perry, and his sisters Sara
and Eliza. His grandmother had told him to join his siblings and
he did so reluctantly. After a while one of the children yelled
out to Frederick that his grandmother was gone. Frederick fell
to the ground and wept, he was about to learn the harsh realities
of the slave system.
The slave children of Aaron Anthony's were fed cornmeal mush that
was placed in a trough, to which they were called. Frederick later
wrote "like so many pigs." The children made homemade
spoons from oyster shells to eat with and competed with each other
for every last bite of food. The only clothing that they were
provided with was one linen shirt which hung to their knees. The
children were provided no beds or warm blankets. On cold winter
nights they would huddle together in the kitchen of the Anthony
house to keep each other warm.
One night Frederick was awakened by a woman's screams. He peered
through a crack in the wall of the kitchen only to see Aaron Anthony
lashing the bare back of a woman, who was his aunt, Hester Baily.
Frederick was terrified, but forced himself to watch the entire
ordeal. This would not be the first whipping he would see, occasionally
he himself would be the victim. He would learn that Aaron Anthony
would brutally beat his slaves if they did not obey orders quickly
enough.
Frederick's mother was rarely able to visit her children due to
the distance between Holmes Hill Farm and the Lloyd plantation.
Frederick last saw his mother when he was seven years old. He
remembered his mother giving a severe scolding to the household
cook who disliked Frederick and gave him very little food. A few
months after this visit, Harriet Baily died, but Frederick did
not learn of this until much later.
Because Frederick had a natural charm that many people found engaging,
he was chosen to be the companion of Daniel Lloyd, the youngest
son of the plantation's owner. Frederick's chief friend and protector
was Lucretia Auld, Aaron Anthony's daughter, who was recently
married to a ship's captain named Thomas Auld. One day in 1826
Lucretia told Frederick that he was being sent to live with her
brother-in-law, Hugh Auld, who managed a ship building firm in
Baltimore, Maryland. She told him that if he scrubbed himself
clean, she would give him a pair of pants to wear to Baltimore.
Frederick was elated at this chance to escape the life of a field
hand. He cleaned himself up and received his first pair of pants.
Within three days he was on his way to Baltimore.
Upon Frederick's arrival at the Auld Home, his only duties were
to run errands and care for the Auld's infant son, Tommy. Frederick
enjoyed the work and grew to love the child. Sophia Auld was a
religious woman and frequently read aloud from the Bible. Frederick
asked his mistress to teach him to read and she readily consented.
He soon learned the alphabet and a few simple words. Sophia Auld
was very excited about Fredericks progress and told her husband
what she had done. Hugh Auld became furious at this because it
was unlawful to teach a slave to read. Hugh Auld believed that
if a slave knew how to read and write that it would make him unfit
for a slave. A slave that could read and write would no longer
obey his master without question or thought, or even worse could
forge papers that said he was free and thus escape to a northern
state where slavery was outlawed. Hugh Auld then instructed Sophia
to stop the lessons at once!
Frederick learned from Hugh Auld's outburst that if learning how
to read and write was his pathway to freedom, then gaining this
knowledge was to become his goal. Frederick gained command of
the alphabet on his own and made friends with poor white children
he met on errands and used them as teachers. He paid for his reading
lessons with pieces of bread. At home Frederick read parts of
books and newspapers when he could, but he had to constantly be
on guard against his mistress. Sophia Auld screamed whenever she
caught Frederick reading. Sophia Auld's attitude toward Frederick
had changed, she no longer regarded him as any other child, but
as a piece of property. However, Frederick gradually learned to
read and write. With a little money he had earned doing errands,
he bought a copy of The Columbian Orator, a collection of speeches
and essays dealing with liberty, democracy, and courage.
Frederick was greatly affected by the speeches on freedom in The
Columbian Orator, and so began reading local newspapers and began
to learn about abolitionists. Not quite 13 years old but enlightened
with new ideas that both tormented and inspired him. Frederick
began to detest slavery. His dreams of emancipation were encouraged
by the example of other blacks in Baltimore, most of whom were
free. But new laws passed by southern state legislators made it
increasingly difficult for owners to free their slaves.
During this time, Aaron Anthony died, and his property went to
his two sons and his daughter, Lucretia Auld. Frederick remained
a part of the Anthony estate and was sent back to the Lloyd plantation
to be a part of the division of property. Frederick was chosen
by Thomas and Lucretia Auld and was sent back to Hugh and Sophia
Auld in Baltimore. Seeing his family being devided up increased
his hatred of slavery, however, he was hurt the most that his
grandmother, considered too old for any work, was evicted from
her cabin and sent into the woods to die. Within a year of Frederick's
return to Baltimore, Lucretia Auld died. The two Auld brothers
then got into a dispute, and Thomas wrote to Hugh and demanded
the return of his late wife's property, which included Frederick.
Frederick was sorry to leave Baltimore because he had recently
become a teacher to a group of other young blacks. In addition,
a black preacher named Charles Lawson had taken Frederick under
his wing and adopted him as his spiritual son. In March of 1833,
the 15 year old Frederick was sent to live at Thomas Auld's new
farm near the town of Saint Michaels, a few miles from the Lloyd
plantation.
Frederick was again put to work as a field hand and was extremely
unhappy about his situation. Thomas Auld starved his slaves, and
they had to steal food from neighboring farms to survive. Frederick
received many beatings and saw worse ones given to others. He
then organized a Sunday religious service for the slaves which
met in near by Saint Michaels. The services were soon stopped
by a mob led by Thomas Auld. Thomas Auld had found Frederick especially
difficult to control so he decided to have someone tame his unruly
slave.
In January 1834, Frederick was sent to work for Edward Covey,
a poor farmer who had gained a reputation around Saint Michaels
for being and expert "slave breaker". Frederick was
not too displeased with this arrangement because Covey fed his
slaves better than Auld did. The slaves on Covey's farm worked
from dawn until after nightfall, plowing, hoeing, and picking
corn. Although the men were given plenty of food, they had very
little time allotted to eat before they were sent back to work.
Covey hid in bushes and spied on the slaves as they worked, if
he caught one of them resting he would beat him with thick branches.
After being on the farm for one week, Frederick was given a serious
beating for letting an oxen team run wild. During the months to
follow, he was continually whipped until he began to feel that
he was "broken". On one hot August afternoon his strength
failed him and he collapsed in the field. Covey kicked and beat
Frederick to no avail and finally walked away in disgust. Frederick
mustered the strength to get up and walk to the Auld farm, where
he pleaded with his master to let him stay. Auld had little sympathy
for him and sent him back to Covey. Beaten down as Frederick was,
he found the strength to rebel when Covey began tying him to a
post in preparation for a whipping. "At that moment - from
whence came the spirit I don't know - I resolved to fight,"
Frederick wrote. "I seized Covey hard by the throat, and
as I did so, I rose." Covey and Frederick fought for almost
two hours until Covey finally gave up telling Frederick that his
beating would have been less severe had he not resisted. "The
truth was," said Frederick, "that he had not whipped
me at all." Frederick had discovered an important truth:
"Men are whipped oftenist who are whipped easiest."
He was lucky, legally, a slave could be killed for resisting his
master. But Covey had a reputation to protect and did not want
it known that he could not control a 16 year old boy.
After working for Covey for a year, Frederick was sent to work
for a farmer named William Freeland, who was a relatively kind
master. But by now, Frederick did not care about having a kind
master. All Frederick wanted was his freedom. He started an illegal
school for blacks in the area that secretly met at night and on
Sundays, and with five other slaves he began to plan his escape
to the North. A year had passed since Frederick began working
for William Freeland and his plan of escape had been completed.
His group planned to steal a boat, row to the northern tip of
Chesapeake Bay, and then flee on foot to the free state of Pennsylvania.
The escape was supposed to take place just before the Easter holiday
in 1836, but one of Frederick's associates had exposed the plot
and a group of armed white men captured the slaves and put them
in jail.
Frederick was in jail for about a week. While imprisoned, he was
inspected by slave traders, and he fully expected that he would
be sold to "a life of living death" in the Deep South.
To his surprise, Thomas Auld came and released him. Then Frederick's
master sent him back to Hugh Auld in Baltimore. The two brothers
had finally settled their dispute. Frederick was now 18 years
old, 6 feet tall and very strong from his work in the fields.
Hugh Auld decided that Frederick should work as a caulker (a man
who forced sealing matter into the seams in a boat's hull to make
it water tight) to earn his keep. He was hired out to a local
shipbuilder so that he could learn the trade. While apprenticing
at the shipyard, Frederick was harassed by white workers who did
not want blacks, slaves or free, competing with them for jobs.
One afternoon, a group of white apprentices beat up Frederick
and nearly took out one of his eyes. Hugh Auld was angry when
he saw what had happened and attempted to press charges against
the assailants. However, none of the shipyard's white employees
would step forward to testify about the beating. Free blacks had
little hope of obtaining justice through the southern court system,
which refused to accept a black person's testimony against a white
person. Therefore, the case had to be dropped.
After Frederick recovered from his injuries, he began apprenticing
at the shipyard where Hugh Auld worked. Within a year, he was
an experienced caulker and was being paid the highest wages possible
for a tradesman at his level. He was allowed to seek his own employment
and collect his own pay, and at the end of each week he gave all
his earnings to Hugh Auld. Sometimes he was allowed to keep a
little money for himself. But as time passed, he became resentful
of having to give up his hard earned pay.
In Frederick's spare time he met with a group of educated free
blacks and indulged in the luxury of being a student again. Some
of the free blacks formed an educational association called the
East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society, which Frederick had
been admitted to. This is where Frederick learned his debating
skills. At one of the society's meetings, Frederick met a free
black woman named Anna Murray. Anna was a few years older than
Frederick and was a servant for a wealthy Baltimore family. Although
Anna was a plain, uneducated woman, Frederick admired her qualities
of thriftiness, industriousness and religiousness. Anna and Frederick
were soon in love and in 1838 they were engaged.
Love and courtship increased Frederick's discontent with his status.
After Frederick's escape attempt, Thomas Auld had promised him
that if he worked hard he would be freed when he turned 25. But
Frederick did not trust his master, and he resolved to escape.
However, escaping would be very difficult due to professional
slave catchers patrolling the boarders between slave states and
free states, and free blacks traveling by train or steamboat had
to carry official papers listing their name, age, height, skin
color, and other distinguishing features. In order to escape,
Frederick needed money to pay for traveling expenses. Frederick
arranged with Hugh Auld to hire out his time, that is, Frederick
would take care of his own room and board and pay his master a
set amount each week, keeping any extra money for himself. This
also gave him the opportunity to see what it was like living on
his own.
This arrangement had been working out quite well until Frederick
returned home late one night and failed to pay Hugh Auld on time.
Auld was furious and revoked his hiring-out privilege. Frederick
was so enraged over this that he refused to work for a week. He
finally gave in to Auld's threats, but he also made a resolution
that in three weeks, on September 3, 1838, he would be on a northbound
train. Escaping was a difficult decision for Frederick. He would
be leaving his friends and his fairly comfortable life in Baltimore
forever. he did not know when and if he would see Anna Murray
again. Furthermore, if he was caught during his escape, he was
sure that he would be either killed or sold to slave traders.
Taking all of this into consideration, Frederick was resolved
to escape to freedom.
With money that he borrowed from Anna, Frederick bought a ticket
to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also had a friend's "sailor's
protection," a document that certified that the person named
on it was a free seaman. Dressed in a sailor's red shirt and black
cravat, Frederick boarded the train. Frederick reached northern
Maryland before the conductor made it to the "Negro car"
to collect tickets and examine papers. Frederick became very tense
when the conductor approached him to look at his papers because
he did not fit the description on them. But with only a quick
glance, the conductor walked on, and the relieved Frederick sank
back in his seat. On a couple of occasions, he thought that he
had been recognized by other passengers from Baltimore, but if
so they did not turn him in to the authorities.
Upon arriving in Wilmington, Delaware, Frederick then boarded
a steamboat to Philadelphia. Even after stepping on Pennsylvania's
free soil, he knew he was not yet safe from slave catchers. He
immediately asked directions to New York City, and that night
he took another train north. On September 4, 1838, Frederick arrived
in New York City. Frederick could not find the words to express
his feelings of leaving behind his life in slavery. He later wrote,
"A new world had opened upon me." "Anguish and
grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted, but gladness and
joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil."