42

670 HISTORICAL ANNOTATION

56.17 balsam] An aromatic oily or resinous medicinal application, usually for
external application, for healing wounds or soothing pain.
56.33 termagant] An overbearing or nagging woman.
57.3-4 sack-cloth] Coarse textile used for bags or for wrapping bales.
58.1 Hugh Auld] Born in Talbot County, Maryland, Hugh Auld (1799-1861)
moved to Baltimore as a young man. There he worked as a ship carpenter, master
shipbuilder, and shipyard foreman, and occasionally served as a magistrate. Prior to
moving to Baltimore, Hugh married Sophia Keithley. From 1826 to 1833 and again
from 1836 to 1838, the young Frederick Douglass lived and worked in their household,
lent to them by his owner, Hugh's brother Thomas. In 1845, Hugh, incensed by
Douglass's depiction of his family in the Narrative, bought Douglass, then on a lecture
tour of Britain, from his brother Thomas. According to the Pennsylvania
Freeman, Auld was determined to reenslave Douglass and "'place him in the cotton
fields of the South" if the fugitive ever returned to the United States. In 1846 two
British abolitionists, Anna and Ellen Richardson, offered to buy Douglass from Auld;
in exchange for $711.66 (£150 sterling) raised among British reformers. Auld signed
the manumission papers that made Douglass a free man. Walter Lourie to Ellis Gray
Loring, 15 December 1846, General Correspondence File, reel 1, frame 644,
Benjamin F. Auld to Douglass, 11, 27 September 1891, General Correspondence File,
reel 6, frames 240-41, 257-58, Douglass to Benjamin F. Auld, 16 September 1891,
General Correspondence File, reel 6, frames 246-47, J. C. Schaffer to Helen Pitts
Douglass, 21 October 1896, General Correspondence File, reel 8, frames 92-93, all
in FD Papers, DLC; Talbot County Records, V.60, 35-36, 30 November 1846,
MdTCH (a copy is found on reel 1, frames 637-39, FD Papers, DLC); Hugh Auld
Family Genealogical Chart, prepared by Carl G. Auld, Ellicott City, Md., 5 June 1976;
PaF, 26 February 1846; Lib., 6 March 1846; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 81,
84-85, 92, 143, 173-75.
58.21 Tom] Tom Bailey (1814-?), the fourth of Milly Bailey's seven children and
Douglass's cousin, was a slave belonging to Aaron Anthony. When Anthony died in
1826, Bailey became the property of Thomas Auld. Auld granted Bailey his freedom
in 1845. The last record of Bailey's existence is a letter to Douglass from his son
Lewis, who visited Talbot County in 1865. During his visit, Lewis wrote, he met with
Bailey, who was still living in St. Michaels. Lewis Douglass to Douglass, 9 June
1865, FD Papers, DHU-MS; Aaron Anthony Slave Distribution, 22 October 1827,
Talbot County Distributions, V.JP#D, 58-59, MdTCH; Preston, Young Frederick
Douglass, 91, 174, 206, 221, 230.
58.31 sixpence] In Britain sixpence is a coin equivalent to six pennies.
58.32-33 shooting-crackers] Probably firecrackers.
58.35 Market house] Baltimore's first market house, though planned in 1751,
was not completed until 1763. For the next twenty years, the market house in
Baltimore at the comer of Gay and Baltimore Streets was the sole point of activity for
provisions commerce. At that point the growing population, diverse in class and separated