Chapter 5-10 Frederick Douglass

This was a fairly long reading assignment that included many different stages of Douglass's life. It begins with his arrival in Baltimore to serve Mr. Hugh and Mrs. Sophia Auld at a very young age (probably around 7 or 8 years old). It ends with him under Mr. Freeland, the best of his masters thus far. There were two parts of this reading that I thought were very important insights into Douglass's mind: the treatment of his grandmother and his Sabbath school. When Colonel Lloyd passes, his property (including his slaves) must be divided between his two children: Andrew and Lucretia. Douglass is placed under Lucretia, the better of the two, but his grandmother is left to die alone. She served Colonel Lloyd from his infancy to his death. She was the mother to twelve children, who became his slaves, as did her children's children, and her great-grandchildren. In the division of property, she saw her family "divided, like so many sheep, without being gratified with the small privilege of a single word, as to their or her own destiny" (28). She is sent to live in a hut by herself and left to die alone, mourning the loss of her children. It is evident in how Douglass compares her treatment of Colonel Lloyd in his last days and Colonel Lloyd's children's treatment of her in her last days that his frustration with the injustice of slavery is increasing. Douglass finds a new family in the slaves within his Sabbath school once he is under the "care" of Mr. Freeland. He calls this time the "great days to [his] soul" (48) and describes his role as teacher to be "the sweetest engagement with which [he] was ever blessed" (48). His school becomes his family- a large family, like that of his grandmother's. A recurring idea throughout these chapters was that education would be his gateway to freedom, something he dreams about while watching the ships in the harbor. His envy of their ability to leave while he remains in the chains of slavery gives us a glimpse into how important his freedom is to him, and that he is determined to escape.