Chapter IX
CHAPTER IX.
I HAVE now reached a period of my life when I can give dates. I left Baltimore, and went to live with Master Thomas Auld at St. Michael's, in March, 1832.†Historical annotation: Actually March 1833. It was now more than seven years since I lived with him in the family of my old master, on Colonel Lloyd's plantation. We of course were now almost entire strangers to each other. He was to me a new master, and I to him a new slave. I was ignorant of his temper and disposition; he was equally so of mine. A very short time, however, brought us into full acquaintance with each other, I was made acquainted with his wife not less than with himself. They were well matched, being equally mean and cruel. I was now, for the first time during a space of more than seven years, made to feel the painful gnawings of hunger — a something which I had not experienced before since I left Colonel Lloyd's plantation. It went hard enough with me then, when I could look back to no period at which I had enjoyed a sufficiency. It was tenfold harder after living in Master Hugh's family, where I had always had enough to eat, and of that which was good. I have said Master Thomas was a mean man. He was so. Not to give a slave enough to eat, is regarded as the most aggravated development of meanness even among slaveholders, The rule is, no matter how coarse the food, only let there be enough of it. This is the theory; and in the part of Maryland from which I came, it is the general practice, — though there are many exceptions. Master Thomas gave us enough of neither coarse nor fine food. There were four slaves of us in the kitchen — my sister Eliza, my aunt Priscilla,†Historical annotation: Priscilla Bailey (1816-?), the eleventh of twelve children born to Isaac and Betsey Bailey, was a slave belonging to Aaron Anthony. When Anthony died in 1826, his son Richard Lee Anthony inherited her. Aaron Anthony Slave Distribution, 22 October 1827, Talbot County Distributions, V.JP#D, 58-59, MdTCH; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 18, 206. Henny,†Historical annotation: Henny Bailey (1816-?), a cousin of Frederick Douglass, was one of seven children born to Milly Bailey, a slave on one of Aaron Anthony's farms. Henny was apparently ill-fitted for work: Anthony estimated her value at fifty dollars, in 1826, less than half the value he placed on her younger cousin Frederick. When Anthony died in 1826, his son-in-law Thomas Auld inherited Bailey and four other slaves. Some time before 1840, Auld granted Bailey her freedom. The last record of Henny's existence is an entry in the 1840 U.S. Census, which identifies her as a free black, between the age of thirty-six and fifty-five, living in St. Michaels District. Inventory of Negroes owned by Aaron Anthony, 19 December 1826, folder 71, Aaron Anthony, Ledger B, 1812-1826, folder 95, 159, both in Dodge Collection, MdAA; Aaron Anthony Slave Distribution, 22 October 1827, Talbot County Distributions, V.JP#D, 58-59, MdTCH; 1840 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 42; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 91, 174, 225n14. and myself; and we were allowed less than half of a bushel of cornmeal per week, and very little else, either in the shape of meat or vegetables. It was not enough for us to subsist upon. We were therefore reduced to the wretched necessity of living at the expense of our neighbors. This we did by begging and stealing, whichever came handy in the time of need, the one being considered as legitimate as the other. A great many times have we poor creatures been nearly perishing with hunger, when food in abundance lay mouldering in the safe and smoke-house, and our pious mistress was aware of the fact; and yet that mistress and her husband would kneel every morning, and pray that God would bless them in basket and store!
Bad as all slaveholders are, we seldom meet one destitute of every element of character commanding respect. My master was one of this rare
sort. I do not know of one single noble act ever performed by him. The leading trait in his character was meanness; and if there were any other element in his nature, it was made subject to this. He was mean; and, like most other mean men, he lacked the ability to conceal his meanness. Captain Auld was not born a slaveholder. He had been a poor man, master only of a Bay craft. He came into possession of all his slaves by marriage; and of all men, adopted slaveholders are the worst. He was cruel, but cowardly. He commanded without firmness. In the enforcement of his rules, he was at times rigid, and at times lax. At times, he spoke to his slaves with the firmness of Napoleon and the fury of a demon; at other times, he might well be mistaken for an inquirer who had lost his way. He did nothing of himself. He might have passed for a lion, but for his ears. In all things noble which he attempted, his own meanness shone most conspicuous. His airs, words, and actions, were the airs, words, and actions of born slaveholders, and, being assumed, were awkward enough. He was not even a good imitator. He possessed all the disposition to deceive, but wanted the power. Having no resources within himself, he was compelled to be the copyist of many, and being such, he was forever the victim of inconsistency; and of consequence he was an object of contempt, and was held as such even by his slaves. The luxury of having slaves of his own to wait upon him was something new andunprepared for. He was a slaveholder without the ability to hold slaves. He found himself incapable of managing his slaves either by force, fear, or fraud. We seldom called him "master," we generally called him "Captain Auld," and were hardly disposed to title him at all. I doubt not that our conduct had much to do with making him appear awkward, and of consequence fretful. Our want of reverence for him must have perplexed him greatly. He wished to have us call him master, but lacked the firmness necessary to command us to do so. His wife used to insist upon our calling him so, but to no purpose. In August, 1832, my master attended a Methodist camp-meeting†Historical annotation: Douglass accompanied his master, Thomas Auld, to some of the services at a Methodist camp meeting held at Haddaway's Woods on what is presently known as the Tilghman Peninsula along the Chesapeake. The meeting lasted from 16 to 21 August 1833 and attracted people from as far as Baltimore, Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 111-13. held in the Bay-side, Talbot county, and there experienced religion. I indulged a faint hope that his conversion would lead him to emancipate his slaves, and that, if he did not do this, it would, at any rate, make him more kind and humane. I was disappointed in both these respects. It neither made him to be humane to his slaves, nor to emancipate them. If it had any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before. Prior to his conversion, he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty. He made
the greatest pretensions to piety. His house was the house of prayer. He prayed morning, noon, and night. He very soon distinguished himself among his brethren, and was soon made a class-leader and exhorter. His activity in revivals was great, and he proved himself an instrument in the hands of the church in converting many souls. His house was the preachers' home. They used to take great pleasure in coming there to put up; for while he starved us, he stuffed them. We have had three or four preachers there at a time. The names of those who used to come most frequently while I lived there, were Mr. Storks,†Historical annotation: The Reverend Levi Storks was the circuit preacher of the Talbot Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832 and 1833. When the British invaded the Eastern Shore in 1814, Storks served as a private in a local regiment. In 1820 he was probably an overseer in Talbot County and in 1834, he married Anne G. Nicholson. 1820 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 6; William M. Marine, The British Invasion of Maryland, 1812-1815 (Baltimore, 1913), 451; Edith G. Bevan, "Maryland Bookplates," MdHM, 39 : 93-94 (March
1944); Thomas H. Sewell, "St. Michaels Methodism" (unpublished paper, 1894), 717, 723, MdAA. Mr. Ewery,†Historical annotation: In 1832, William Uriey (c. 1810-80) was a circuit preacher for the Methodist Episcopal Church's Talbot Circuit, which included St. Michaels Parish. Sewell, "St. Michaels Methodism," 717. Mr Humphry,†Historical annotation: Joshua Humphries (c. 1801-79) entered the Methodist Episcopal ministry in 1829 and soon became a prominent member of that faith in Talbot County. In 1834 he was the presiding elder and circuit preacher for the Talbot Circuit. Humphries continued in charge in the Talbot Circuit in 1835 when he issued an important report on the state of Sunday schools. James M. McCarter and Benjamin F. Jackson, eds., Historical and Biographical Encyclopedia of Delaware (Wilmington, Del., 1882), 410; Sewell, "St. Michaels Methodism;" 675, 730. and Mr Hickey.†Historical annotation: William—or possibly Thomas—Hickey was a Methodist preacher who in the 1830s rode a circuit which included St. Michaels Parish. Sewell, "St. Michaels Methodism," 723; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 114, 226n16. I have also seen Mr. George Cookman†Historical annotation: Born into a wealthy family in Hull, England, George Cookman (1800-41) began working in his father's merchant firm at the age of twenty. Between 1821 and 1823, he visited the United States on business and during this sojourn became convinced of his duty to preach the gospel. Despite his father's protestations, he resolved to settle permanently in America and become a Methodist minister. Soon after migrating in 1825, Cookman became a popular figure in the Methodists' Philadelphia Conference, preaching throughout parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. His powerful sermons won him the position of chaplain to the U.S. Congress. As revivals were sweeping the Eastern Shore, Cookman became the minister of the St. Michaels Methodist Episcopal church in the summer of 1829 and labored to hold it in the denomination. He remained in that position at least through the early 1830s. By 1830 Cookman was married and had two young sons. He had some antislavery leanings and apparently persuaded Samuel Harrison, one of Talbot County's largest slaveholders, to emancipate all of his adult male slaves in his will. In March 1841, the steamship President on which Cookman was sailing for England was lost at sea. 1830 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 6; Matthew Simpson, ed., Cyclopaedia of Methodism, 5th rev. ed. (Philadelphia, 1882), 255-56; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 114-15, 226n17; Sewell, "St Michaels Methodism," 665-67, 675-76, 677-78, 680, 707; ACAB, 1 : 722. at our house. We slaves loved Mr. Cookman. We believed him to be a good man. We thought him instrumental in getting Mr. Samuel Harrison,†Historical annotation: Samuel Harrison (?-1837) was one of the wealthiest slaveholders in Talbot County: in 1802 he inherited a lucrative import and export business from his father Thomas Harrison. He increased his fortune in the 1810s by lending money and supplies to those engaged in the then booming shipbuilding industry of Talbot County and by 1830 he owned 84 slaves. At the request of his friend and confidante, the Reverend George Cookman, Harrison stipulated in his will that all adult male slaves be manumitted upon his death. 1830 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 42; Tilghman, Talbot County, 2 : 379, 383, 389-90, 397; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 115, 226n17. a very rich slaveholder, to emancipate his slaves; and by some means got the impression that he was laboring to effect the emancipation of all the slaves. When he was at our house, we were sure to be called in to prayers. When the others were there, we were sometimes called in and sometimes not. Mr. Cookman took more notice of us than either of the other ministers. He could not come among us without betraying his sympathy for us, and, stupid as we were, we had the sagacity to see it.
While I lived with my master in St. Michael's, there was a white young man, a Mr. Wilson,†Historical annotation: Nathan Wilson (c. 1797-c. 1861), an unmarried Quaker about fifty years old, taught at a local school for whites in the early 1840s near Denton in Caroline County, only a few miles from Talbot County. While Quakerism no longer was the influential religious force on the Eastern Shore that it had been in the eighteenth century, numerous Quakers remained in the region and some continued to argue against slavery and for teaching the slaves to read the Scriptures. This particular teacher could plausibly have been interested in opening a Sabbath school for blacks, as could have any of the other various Quaker Wilsons who populated Talbot and other Eastern Shore counties. Among other local whites interested in black education was Louisa Hambleton from the Eastern Shore's famous first family, who unsuccessfully attempted to open a Sabbath school for St. Michaels' slaves in 1843. Robert Todd, Methodism of the Peninsula (Philadelphia, 1886), 249-53; Kenneth Carroll, Quakerism on the Eastern Shore (Baltimore, 1970), 219, 245; Sewell, "St. Michaels Methodism;" 687. who proposed to keep a Sabbath school for the instruction of such slaves as might be disposed to learn to read the New Testament. We met but three times, when Mr. West†Historical annotation: Garretson West (1800-53) was famous among Methodists in St. Michaels, Maryland, for his religious enthusiasm and moral zeal. Although he worked first as an oysterman and later as a teamster, West primarily devoted himself to spurring public prayer, exhorting the faithful at the Methodist classes he led, and—despite his illiteracy—conversing at length with others over the meaning of various biblical passages. In 1829, West was elected to the board of trustees of the Methodist church in St. Michaels and held that position until 1836. He also was appointed that church's sexton in 1830 and again in 1836. At the time of his death, West was married, had at least one child, and had accumulated little wealth. 1850 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 80; Tilghman, Talbot County, 2 : 400-01; Todd, Methodism of the Peninsula, 113-23; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 116; Sewell, "St. Michaels Methodism," 672-74, 680-81, 701. 707, 727. and Mr. Fairbanks,†Historical annotation: Wrightson Fairbank or Fairbanks (c. 1806-?) was a resident of Talbot County who in 1850 worked as a merchant and headed a household that included his wife, four children, and two female relatives. He owned neither land nor slaves. Fairbanks was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Michaels and ran unsuccessfully for the board of trustees of the parish in September 1835, 1850 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 80; Sewell, "St. Michaels Methodism," 725. both classleaders, with many others, came upon us with sticks and other missiles, drove us off, and forbade us to meet again. Thus ended our little Sabbath school in the pious town of St. Michael's.
I have said my master found religious sanction for his cruelty. As an example, I will state one of many facts going to prove the charge. I have seen him lie up a lame young woman, and whip her with a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of Scripture "He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes."†Historical annotation: A paraphrase of Luke 12 : 47.
Master would keep this lacerated young woman tied up in this horrid situation four or five hours at a time. I have known him to tie her up early in the morning, and whip her before breakfast; leave her, go to his store, return at dinner, and whip her again, cutting her in the places already made raw with his cruel lash. The secret of master's cruelty toward "Henny" is found in the fact of her being almost helpless. When quite a child, she fell into the
fire, and burned herself horribly. Her hands were so burnt that she never got the use of them. She could do very little but bear heavy burdens. She was tomaster a bill of expense; and as he was a mean man, she was a constant offence to him. He seemed desirous of getting the poor girl out of existence. He gave her away once to his sister; but, being a poor gift, she was not disposed to keep her. Finally, my benevolent master, to use his own words, "set her adrift to take care of herself." Here was a recently-converted man, holding on upon the mother, and at the same time turning out her helpless child, to starve and die! Master Thomas was one of the many pious slaveholders who hold slaves for the very charitable purpose of taking care of them.
My master and myself had quite a number of differences. He found me unsuitable to his purpose. My city life, he said, had had a very pernicious effect upon me. It had almost ruined me for every good purpose, and fitted me for every thing which was bad. One of my greatest faults was that of letting his horse run away, and go down to his father-in-law's farm, which was about five miles from St. Michael's. I would then have to go after it. My reason for this kind of carelessness, or carefulness, was, that I could always get something to eat when I went there. Master William Hamilton, my master's father-in-law, always gave his slaves enough to eat. I never left there hungry, no matter how great the need of my speedy return. Master Thomas at length said he would stand it no longer. I had lived with him nine months, during which time he had given me a number of severe whippings, all to no good purpose. He resolved to put me out, as he said, to be broken; and, for this purpose, he let me for one year to a man named Edward Covey.†Historical annotation: Edward Covey (1806?-75), who started out as a poor farm-renter from Talbot County, Maryland, managed to accumulate $23,000 in real estate by 1850. Covey's reputation as a slave breaker enabled him to rent or even to receive the free use of field hands from local slaveowners anxious to have their slaves taught proper discipline. Harriet Lucretia Anthony, the great granddaughter of Aaron Anthony, remembered that "Mr. Covey was really noted for his cruelty and meanness." Inventory of the Estate of Edward Covey, 15 May 1875, Talbot County Inventories, TNC#3, 578, MdTCH; Harriet Anthony's annotated copy of My Bondage and My Freedom, folder 93, 203, Dodge Collection, MdAA; 1850 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 240 (schedule of free inhabitants); Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 117-31. Mr. Covey was a poor man, a farm-renter. He rented the place upon which he lived, as also the hands with which he tilled it. Mr. Covey had acquired a very high reputation for breaking young slaves, and this reputation was of immense value to him. It enabled him to get his farm tilled with much less expense to himself than he could have had it done without such a reputation. Some slaveholders thought it not much loss to allow Mr. Covey to have their slaves one year, for the sake of the training to which they were subjected, without any other compensation. He could hire young help with great ease, in consequence of this reputation. Added to the natural good qualities of Mr. Covey, he was a professor of religion—a pious soul—a member and a class-leader in the Methodist church. All of this added weight to his reputation as a "nigger-breaker." I was aware of all the facts, having been made acquainted with them by a young man who had lived
there. I nevertheless made the change gladly; for I was sure of getting enough to eat, which is not the smallest consideration to a hungry man.