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5 revisions | Meesharie27 at May 15, 2023 07:12 PM | |
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5LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 157 CHAPTER II. My free life began on the third of September, 1838. On the morning of the 4th of that month after an anxious and most perilous but safe journey, I found myself in the big city of New York, a free man; one more added to the mighty throng which like the confused waves of the troubled sea, surged to and fro between the lofty walls of Broadway. Though dazzled with the wonders which met me on every hand my thoughts could not be much withdrawn from my strange situation. For the moment the dreams of my youth and the hopes of my manhood, were completely fulfilled. The bonds that had held me to "old master" were broken. No man now had a right to call me his slave or assert mastery over me. I was in the rough and tumble of an outdoor world, to take my chance with the rest of its busy number. I have often been asked, how I felt, when first I found myself on free soil. And my readers may share the same curiosity. There is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. A new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath, and the "quick round or blood," I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but tamely describe. In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York I said: "I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions." Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil. During ten or fifteen years I had, as it were, been dragging a heavy chain, which no strength of mine could break; I was not | 5LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 157 CHAPTER II. My free life began on the third of September, 1838. On the morning of the 4th of that month after an anxious and most perilous but safe journey, I found myself in the big city of New York, a free man; one more added to the mighty throng which like the confused waves of the troubled sea, surged to and fro between the lofty walls of Broadway. Though dazzled with the wonders which met me on every hand my thoughts could not be much withdrawn from my strange situation. For the moment the dreams of my youth and the hopes of my manhood were completely fulfilled. The bonds that had held me to "old master" were broken. No man now had a right to call me his slave or assert mastery over me. I was in the rough and tumble of an outdoor world, to take my chance with the rest of its busy number. I have often been asked how I felt when first I found myself on free soil. And my readers may share the same curiosity. There is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. A new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath, and the "quick round or blood" I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but tamely describe. In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York I said: "I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions." Anguish and grief like darkness and rain may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow defy the skill of pen or pencil. During ten or fifteen years I had as it were been dragging a heavy chain, which no strength of mine could break; I was not |