Question

What factors aided in Frederick Douglass’ escape from slavery?

Answer 1

On September 3, 1838, Douglass successfully escaped by boarding a train from the newly merged Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (P.W.& B.) railroad line to the great Northern cities.After Douglass escaped, he wanted to promote freedom for all slaves. He published a newspaper in Rochester, New York, called The North Star. It got its name because slaves escaping at night followed the North Star in the sky to freedom.Over 175 years after the escape of Frederick Douglass from slavery, look back at how the famed abolitionist became a free man.After Douglass' attempt to escape slavery two years prior was betrayed by a fellow slave, he had been jailed, sent to Baltimore by his master and hired out to work in the city's shipyards.Douglass posed as a sailor when he grabbed a train in Baltimore that was headed to Philadelphia. He was also given papers from a freed black sailor to help in the journey.“My knowledge of ships and sailor's talk came much to my assistance, for I knew a ship from stem to stern, and from keelson to cross-trees, and could talk sailor like an 'old salt,'” he later said in his autobiography.