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READER RESPONSES, 1881-93 1051

the reports which used to be given by interested or misinformed persons about the
happy and contented condition of slavery, and the thoughtful care for their material
comforts which made the lot of the slave enviable as compared with that of most of
the peasantry of Europe. Besides the brooding shadow of an all-pervading and irre-
sponsible tyranny, of the most absolute and cruel kind, this autobiography tells us of
"the close-fisted stinginess that fed the poor slave on coarse corn meal and tainted
meat, that clothed him in trashy tow-linen, that hurried him on to toil through the
field in all weathers, and that scarcely gave even the young slave-mother time to
nurse her infant in the fence-corner." As to his own experiences, as a boy, Mr.
Douglass considers that his lot was not a hard one as compared with that of many;
but he graphically describes the miseries which he endured from insufficient food
and clothing. The pigs had leaves and the horses had straw, but beds for the slave
children were never thought of. As for food, he says: "Our corn meal mush, which
[57.15–22] left the trough really satisfied."

No wonder that Mr. Douglass should say, that as a child he used to wish he had
never been born, and would often sadly contrast his condition with that of the black-
birds, whose wild sweet song made him fancy them so happy. He adds, "There are
thoughtful days in [57.31–36] old, as I am now."

At about this time an unexpected change took place, which Mr. Douglass says
he regards as one of the most interesting and fortunate events of his life. He was
transferred from the plantation on which he had spent his earlier years to the City of
Baltimore, having been handed over in fact to his master's daughter and son-in-law,
to serve as a companion and guardian of their little son, a year or two younger than
himself. The news of the transfer gave him great delight. He had heard wonderful
tales of Baltimore, and in the change from the depressing surroundings of the famil-
iar plantation-life then; was the opening up at any rate of a dimly discerned region
of possibilities and hopes. The three days before his departure were accordingly the
three happiest days he had ever known, and there is a pathetic significance in the
statement that he spent the greater part of them in the creek, "washing off the planta-
tion scurf," and trying thus to prepare himself for the hitherto unknown luxury of
wearing a pair of trousers! He was received by his new master and mistress, Mr. and
Mrs. Hugh Auld, with kindness; he fell in love at first sight with the rosy-cheeked,
curly-headed boy who was to he his special charge; and he found himself at once in
something more nearly approachmg to a home than he had known since he had left
the humble cabin of his grandmother. Here. too, however, the iron was soon to enter
into his soul.

Under the comparatively favourable circumstances of his new position, the
boy's naturally bright intellect evidently began to unfold rapidly. One sign of this
was the growth of a strong desire to learn to read. His mistress was kind and was
also inexperienced, having never been a slaveholder; she therefore readily consented
to teach the boy at his request, and was delighted to find that he made rapid progress.
This, however, was a happiness for Frederick Douglass of very short duration. The

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