A Nerve-Racking Journey.

This article from Cobblestone magazine recounts the nerve-racking journey of Frederick Bailey, an enslaved person, as he attempted to escape to freedom in 1838. Frederick borrowed papers from a Black friend who was a sailor to pass as a free Black man. He traveled by train and steamboat, eventually reaching New York City, where he found help from the Underground Railroad. Frederick and his fiancée, Anna Murray, married and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, with the help of Nathan and Polly Johnson. They changed their last name to Douglass and became active in the abolitionist movement. The article also discusses the Fugitive Slave Laws and the challenges faced by escaped enslaved people in the United States. [Extracted from the article]