Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass, a Slave | Page 4

which gave it the
appearance at once of an authorized document. This protection, when
in my hands, did not describe its bearer very accurately. Indeed, it
called for a man much darker than myself, and close examination of it
would have caused my arrest at the start.
In order to avoid this fatal scrutiny on the part of railroad officials, I
arranged with Isaac Rolls, a Baltimore hackman, to bring my baggage
to the Philadelphia train just on the moment of starting, and jumped
upon the car myself when the train was in motion. Had I gone into the
station and offered to purchase a ticket, I should have been instantly
and carefully examined, and undoubtedly arrested. In choosing this
plan I considered the jostle of the train, and the natural haste of the
conductor, in a train crowded with passengers, and relied upon my skill
and address in playing the sailor, as described in my protection, to do
the rest. One element in my favor was the kind feeling which prevailed
in Baltimore and other sea-ports at the time, toward "those who go
down to the sea in ships." "Free trade and sailors' rights" just then
expressed the sentiment of the country. In my clothing I was rigged out
in sailor style. I had on a red shirt and a tarpaulin hat, and a black
cravat tied in sailor fashion carelessly and loosely about my neck. My
knowledge of ships and sailor's talk came much to my assistance, for I
knew a ship from stem to stern, and from keelson to cross-trees, and
could talk sailor like an "old salt." I was well on the way to Havre de
Grace before the conductor came into the negro car to collect tickets
and examine the papers of his black passengers. This was a critical
moment in the drama. My whole future depended upon the decision of
this conductor. Agitated though I was while this ceremony was
proceeding, still, externally, at least, I was apparently calm and
self-possessed. He went on with his duty--examining several colored
passengers before reaching me. He was somewhat harsh in tome and
peremptory in manner until he reached me, when, strange enough, and
to my surprise and relief, his whole manner changed. Seeing that I did
not readily produce my free papers, as the other colored persons in the
car had done, he said to me, in friendly contrast with his bearing toward

the others:
"I suppose you have your free papers?"
To which I answered:
"No sir; I never carry my free papers to sea with me."
"But you have something to show that you are a freeman, haven't you?"
"Yes, sir," I answered; "I have a paper with the American Eagle on it,
and that will carry me around the world."
With this I drew from my deep sailor's pocket my seaman's protection,
as before described. The merest glance at the paper satisfied him, and
he took my fare and went on about his business. This moment of time
was one of the most anxious I ever experienced. Had the conductor
looked closely at the paper, he could not have failed to discover that it
called for a very different-looking person from myself, and in that case
it would have been his duty to arrest me on the instant, and send me
back to Baltimore from the first station. When he left me with the
assurance that I was all right, though much relieved, I realized that I
was still in great danger: I was still in Maryland, and subject to arrest at
any moment. I saw on the train several persons who would have known
me in any other clothes, and I feared they might recognize me, even in
my sailor "rig," and report me to the conductor, who would then subject
me to a closer examination, which I knew well would be fatal to me.
Though I was not a murderer fleeing from justice, I felt perhaps quite
as miserable as such a criminal. The train was moving at a very high
rate of speed for that epoch of railroad travel, but to my anxious mind it
was moving far too slowly. Minutes were hours, and hours were days
during this part of my flight. After Maryland, I was to pass through
Delaware--another slave State, where slave-catchers generally awaited
their prey, for it was not in the interior of the State, but on its borders,
that these human hounds were most vigilant and active. The border
lines between slavery and freedom were the dangerous ones for the
fugitives. The heart of no fox or deer, with hungry hounds on his trail

in full chase, could have beaten more anxiously or noisily than did
mine from the time I left Baltimore till I reached Philadelphia.