accursed appetite; but the strife had made me dreadfully weak.
Gradually my health improved, my spirits recovered, and I ceased to
despair. Once more was I enabled to crawl into the sunshine; but, oh,
how changed! Wan cheeks and hollow eyes, feeble limbs and almost
powerless hands plainly enough indicated that between me and death
there had indeed been but a step; and those who saw me might say as was
said of Dante, when he passed through the streets of France, "There's
the man that has been in hell."




FREDERICK DOUGLASS

(1817-1895)

THE SLAVE WHO STOLE FREEDOM

To Booker T. Washington, the teller of the tale which follows,
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation brought freedom when he was but
three years old. But Mr. Washington's struggles, first for an
education, later in behalf of his black brethren, have endowed him with
understanding and warm sympathy for Douglass, the man who, in his own
generation, preceded Washington as the foremost colored citizen of the
United States.

In later days, when the Underground Railway was in full operation, the
slave who ran away could be sure of aid and comfort at any one of its
many stations that he might find it possible to reach. But
Douglass--pioneer among these dark-skinned adventurers for