Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

Among the white families, young Frederick finds two people whom he considers his friends. The first is Daniel Lloyd, Colonel Lloyd’s youngest son and Frederick’s frequent playmate. The second—and the object of Douglass’s fondest recollections—is Miss Lucretia, daughter of Captain Anthony and wife of Captain Thomas Auld. On nights when he has little or nothing to eat, Frederick knows that he can sing outside her window and Lucretia will give him a piece of bread and butter. When a fight with a fellow slave results in a severe gash to Frederick’s forehead—the scar from which is visible even in Douglass’s old age—Lucretia applies balsam and white linen, neither of which is “more healing to the wound in my head, than her kindness was to the wounds in my spirit” (51).

Frederick learns from Lucretia that her father, Captain Anthony, has agreed to send him to Baltimore, where he will live with the family of her brother-in-law, Mr. Hugh Auld. The boy cannot contain his excitement. The allure of a bustling town, coupled with his distaste for Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, makes him eager to leave. Douglass considers this move “one of the most interesting and fortunate events of my life” (54).