The Incredible Life Story of Frederick Douglass (3 Autobiographies in One Edition) by Frederick Douglass

Author:Frederick Douglass [Douglass, Frederick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788027221370
Publisher: Musaicum Press
Published: 2017-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIII.

THE VICISSITUDES OF SLAVE LIFE

Table of Contents

Death of old Master's son Richard speedily followed by that of old Master--Valuation and division of all the property, including the slaves--Sent for to come to Hillsborough to be valued and divided--Sad prospects and grief--Parting--Slaves have no voice in deciding their own destinies--General dread of falling into Master Andrew's hands--His drunkenness--Good fortune in falling to Miss Lucretia--She allows my return to Baltimore--Joy at Master Hugh's--Death of Miss Lucretia--Master Thomas Auld's second marriage--The new wife unlike the old--Again removed from Master Hugh's--Reasons for regret--Plan of escape.

I MUST now ask the reader to go back with me a little in point of time, in my humble story, and notice another circumstance that entered into my slavery experience, and which, doubtless, has had a share in deepening my horror of slavery and of my hostility toward those men and measures that practically uphold the slave system.

It has already been observed that though I was, after my removal from Col. Lloyd's plantation, in form the slave of Master Hugh Auld, I was in fact and in law the slave of my old master, Capt. Anthony. Very well. In a very short time after I went to Baltimore my old master's youngest son, Richard, died; and in three years and six months after, my old master himself died, leaving, to share the estate, only his daughter Lucretia and his son Andrew. The old man died while on a visit to his daughter in Hillsborough, where Capt. Auld and Mrs. Lucretia now lived. Master Thomas, having given up the command of Col. Lloyd's sloop, was now keeping store in that town.

Cut off thus unexpectedly, Capt. Anthony died intestate, and his property must be equally divided between his two children, Andrew and Lucretia.

The valuation and division of slaves among contending heirs was a most important incident in slave life. The characters and tendencies of the heirs were generally well understood by the slaves who were to be divided, of whom all had their a versions and their preferences. But neither their aversions nor their preferences availed anything.

On the death of old master I was immediately sent for to be valued and divided with the other property. Personally, my concern was mainly about my possible removal from the home of Master Hugh, for up to this time there had no dark clouds arisen to darken the sky of that happy abode. It was a sad day to me when I left for the Eastern Shore, to be valued and divided, as it was for my dear mistress and teacher, and for little Tommy. We all three wept bitterly, for we were parting, and it might be we were parting forever. No one could tell amongst which pile of chattels I might be flung. Thus early, I got a foretaste of that painful uncertainty which in one form or another was ever obtruding itself in the pathway of the slave. It furnished me a new insight into the unnatural power to which I was subjected.

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