Douglass escapes to the North in this chapter but is not forthcoming about how he managed this feat. He explains that his method of escape is still used by other slaves and thus he doesn't want to publicize it. Douglass adds that the underground railroad (an organized system of cooperation among abolitionists helping fugitive slaves escape to the North or Canada) should be called the "upperground railroad," and he honors "those good men and women for their noble daring, and applauds them for willingly subjecting themselves to bloody persecution," but he states emphatically that he is adamantly opposed to anyone revealing the means whereby slaves escape.
Douglass says that he needed money to escape, so he proposed to Hugh Auld that he "hire his time." In return for a set amount per week, Douglass gained the liberty of finding work; anything he made over the amount he promised to Auld was his to keep. "Rain or shine, work or no work, at the end of each week the money must be forthcoming, or I must give up my privilege." He relieved Hugh Auld from the responsibility of clothing, feeding, and finding work for him. For Douglass, this work situation meant suffering under slavery, but also experiencing the anxiety of a free person (who must fend for him or herself in the job market). Nonetheless, he was determined to earn enough for his escape. Eventually he acquired enough money to get himself to New York on September 3, 1838.
The excitement of being free was soon tempered by loneliness and fear of being captured and kidnapped. In the North, there are plenty of "man-hunters," who are eager to take fugitive slaves back to their owners for a fee. Fortunately, he met David Ruggles, an abolitionist who advised him to move to New Bedford, Massachusetts, about fifty miles south of Boston, where he could easily find work. Here, Douglass mentions for the first time his wife, Anna Murray (a freed woman whom he had met in Maryland), who joined him in New York City. They were married on September 15, 1838, and immediately traveled to New Bedford, where they stayed with Nathan Johnson, an abolitionist. Johnson suggested that Frederick change his last name in order to hide from slave hunters. Douglass explains: "I gave Mr. Johnson the privilege of choosing me a name, but told him he must not take from me the name of 'Frederick.' I must hold on to that, to preserve a sense of my identity." To replace "Bailey," Johnson chose "Douglass," a character in Sir Walter Scott's long romantic poem The Lady of the Lake. Oddly, the name of the banished nobleman in that poem, James of Douglas, is spelled with a single s.
Douglass was greatly surprised at the wealth of luxuries in the North, for he had imagined that without slaves, Northerners must be living in poor conditions. Instead, he found the North to be refined and wealthy and without signs of extreme poverty. "The people looked more able, stronger, healthier, and happier than those of Maryland." Douglass was enterprising and soon found work loading a ship and managing various odd jobs. Unfortunately, he could not work as a caulker, for the white caulkers in New Bedford refused to work with a black person.
Another turning point occurred at this time. About four months after settling in New Bedford, Douglass chanced upon The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper, and became more acquainted with the anti-slavery movement. While attending an anti-slavery convention on August 11, 1841, he spoke for the first time to an audience of white people at the urging of William Coffin, an abolitionist leader. Douglass ends his story by saying that as an ex-slave, he initially felt uneasy speaking to a white crowd, but he overcame feelings of inferiority and became an ardent orator and advocate of abolition.
