|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: haste of the conductor, in a train crowded with passengers, and relied upon
my skill and address in playing the sailor, as described in my protection,
to do the rest. One element in my favor was the kind feeling which prevailed
in Baltimore and other sea-ports at the time, toward "those who go down
to the sea in ships." "Free trade and sailors' rights" just then expressed
the sentiment of the country. In my clothing I was rigged out in sailor style.
I had on a red shirt and a tarpaulin hat, and a black cravat tied
in sailor fashion carelessly and loosely about my neck. 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." I was well on the way to Havre de Grace before
|
