My Bondage and My Freedom

In St. Michael’s, most of the buildings were made of well-worn wood. Its lifeline was Miles River, which was the town’s source of oysters. Fishermen were there at all hours during most seasons, carrying liquor with them to stave off the cold. The commonness of drinking in the town cultivated vulgarity among its citizens.

Douglass arrived in St. Michael’s in March 1833. He recalls the year well because it was one year after the cholera outbreak in Baltimore and the year “of that strange phenomenon, when the heavens seemed about to part with its starry train” (189). Douglass didn’t know Thomas Auld and hadn’t seen him in seven years. He had to learn about Thomas’s disposition and figure out how to please him. Douglass quickly learned that Thomas was a stingy enslaver, while his second wife, Rowena, was cruel and quickly made her aversion to Douglass clear. For the first time in seven years, Douglass went hungry, just as he had on Lloyd’s plantation.

There were four people in the household—Thomas, Rowena, Hadaway Auld (Thomas’s brother), and Amanda. There were also three enslaved people in the kitchen—all of them Douglass’s relatives. The enslaved people ate only cornmeal most of the time.