Forging Freedom from Places of Bondage

Forging Freedom from Places of Bondage. . , At age six, Frederick Bailey was forced to leave the Tuckahoe and enter terrifying plantation life under his master's roof in Miles River Neck. He witnessed brutal and routine violence against enslaved people. Later, in Baltimore, he gleaned literacy from the streets, sharpened his intellect, and became empowered through his newfound religion., After his master moved him to St. Michaels as a teenager, Frederick started a clandestine Sunday School, teaching others to read. When discovered, he was dispatched to the fields of "slavebreaker" Edward Covey, whom he famously fought and beat. From Covey's isolated Bayside shore, Frederick gained inspiration to self-emancipate from the white sails on the Chesapeake Bay.,

"You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip!" , , Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855

, During the first 1 years of his life, Frederick Douglass lived enslaved in several waterside places on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Waterways were the highways of the day. From his earliest days on the Tuckahoe Creek to his time of despair by the broad Chesapeake Bay where he resolved to be free, Douglass understood that land was the place of bondage, and water was the pathway to freedom., [Captions:] , Miles River Neck was the home of Frederick Douglass's master, Captain Aaron Anthony, overseer of overseers for Edward Lloyd. As a boy, Douglass lived in the kitchen wind and played at the nearby windmill., Frederick Douglass keenly observed the world around him. ,

"The windmill…was to me a source of infinite interest and pleasure…to view the whirling winds of his wondrous machine. From the mill we could see other objects of deep interest. These were, the vessels from St. Michael's, on their way to Baltimore. It was a source of much amusement to view the flowing sails and complicated rigging." , , Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855

, A log canoe, like the one shown in this photo, is the type Frederick Douglass planned to paddle and sail to freedom. Learn about these boats and visit the home of Douglass's sister, Eliza Bailey Mitchell, at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels., Frederick Douglass returned to Easton in 178 as a world-renowned orator, author and statesman.He delivered an address aththe Talbot County Courthouse, adjacent to the jail site where he was held for a harrowing week in 236 for planning to claim his freedom. A statue erected outside the courthouse in 2011 commemorates the address and Douglass's legacy., Dig Deeper: , Explore four online driving tours of Frederick Douglass sites in Talbot County or read Douglass's autobiographies to learn his own words. All at www.frederickdougalssbirthplace.org.