The Underground Railroad Literary Analysis

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5. Telling a Free Story: Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in Myth and Reality

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After a few months of this arrangement, Douglass neglects to pay Hugh his weekly tribute on time because he has gone to spend time with friends outside Baltimore. Hugh thinks Douglass is planning an escape and retracts the permission he gave Douglass to work on his own, and in retaliation, Douglass does no work for an entire week. When his next payment to Hugh is due, his master is furious, and the two men almost come to blows. After this confrontation, Douglass decides to attempt an escape on the third of September. Douglass keeps Hugh ignorant of his plans by acting as if he has no such plans. That Douglass can now keep his master ignorant shows that he now sees himself as the equal of his "master. Douglass has mixed feelings about escaping, because he will be forced to part with the beloved friends he has made in Baltimore.

His past failure also discourages him. However, he sticks to his resolution and successfully escapes. That the simple, elemental desire to be free should force Douglass to give up his friendships is yet another indictment of slavery. Douglass reaches New York City on September third, and initially feels great relief. However, this relief soon turns to further anxiety when he realizes that he still can be recaptured. He also experiences a crushing loneliness in the foreign city because he is unable to trust anyone.

Far from home and unable to trust anyone, Douglass can no longer enjoy the fellowship of his friends, and this deprivation takes a toll on his mental health. Fortunately, Douglass is aided by a free black abolitionist and journalist, Mr. David Ruggles , who takes the fugitive slave into his boarding house and instructs him to go work as a caulker in New Bedford. Finally, Douglass is treated like a human being.

His marriage to Anna leaves him able to enjoy human fellowship at a level greater than he ever could while enslaved. Ruggles is the beginning of Douglass's move to become an activist against slavery—the educated black free men feel a duty of fellowship to the slaves left behind. Douglass and his new wife board a steamboat for Newport, Rhode Island.

Despite having no money to pay for transportation to New Bedford, they board a stagecoach and arrive at the house of Mr. Nathan Johnson , who treats them well and pays for their coach fare. Douglass begins to feel safe with Johnson. Taking on a new name is like a kind of baptism, a gaining of a new free self, untainted by slavery. Douglass is amazed that New Bedford lacks the destitution that some experience in the south, and is especially impressed that many free blacks in the north live more comfortably than some slaveholders in the south.

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