62

214 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

very heart of the south. He was not averse to the shedding of blood, and
thought the practice of carrying arms would be a good one for the colored
people to adopt, as it would give them a sense of their manhood. No people
he said could have self respect, or be respected, who would not fight for their
freedom. He called my attention to a map of the United States, and pointed
out to me the far-reaching Alleghenies, which stretch away from the borders
of New York, into the Southern States. "These mountains." he said. "'are the
basis of my plan. God has given the strength of the hills to freedom, they
were placed here for the emancipation of the negro race: they are full of
natural forts, where one man for defense will be equal to a hundred for
attack; they are full also of good hiding places, where large numbers of brave
men could be concealed, and baffle and elude pursuit for a long time. I know
these mountains well, and could take a body of men into them and keep them
there despite of all the efforts of Virginia to dislodge them. The true object
to be sought is first of all to destroy the money value of slave property; and
that can only be done by rendering such property insecure. My plan then is
to take at first about twenty-five picked men, and begin on a small scale;
supply them arms and ammunition, post them in squads of five on a line of
twenty-five miles, the most persuasive and judicious of whom shall go down
to the fields from time to time, as opportunity offers. and induce the slaves
to join them, seeking and selecting the most restless and daring."

He saw that in this part of the work the utmost care must be used to avoid
treachery and disclosure. Only the most conscientious and skillful should be
sent on this perilous duty; with care and enterprise he thought he could soon
gather a force of one hundred hardy men, men who would be content to lead
the free and adventurous life to which he proposed to train them; when these
were properly drilled, and each man had found the place for which he was
best suited, they would begin work in earnest; they would run off the slaves
in large numbers, retain the brave and strong ones in the mountains, and send
the weak and timid to the north by the underground railroad; his operations
would be enlarged with increasing numbers, and would not be confined to
one locality.

When I asked him, how he would support these men, he said emphatically,
he would subsist them upon the enemy. Slavery was a state of war, and
the slave had a right to anything necessary to his freedom. But said I, "'suppose
you succeed in running off a few slaves, and thus impress the Virginia
slaveholders with a sense of insecurity in their slaves, the effect will be only
to make them sell their slaves further south." "That," said he, "'will be first
what I want to do; then I would follow them up. If we could drive slavery