Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
'Escape from Slavery' is an audio production from the essay written by Frederick Douglass and contains music with effects. Working as a dockworker in the mid-Atlantic state of Maryland, a young Frederick Douglass meditates on his indignant situation as a slave afforded a, relatively speaking, privileged position, with the luxury of “hiring out his time,” but with no legal entitlement to the wages earned from his labor.
He claims it was out of good luck and not out of courage. Men of
color working as slaves were closely monitored and controlled to ensure they never got their freedom. With the strong desire to become free men, many of these men who worked as slaves were able to come up with strategies to escape. Although the means of escape were dangerous and caused penalties to anyone who aided with their escape, they still pursued the desire for freedom. If the escapees were captured and their plans were discovered, the slave workers would be returned to their masters, and the means of escape would be abolished and the workers would be punished.
Produced and performed by Vincent Bagnall (43 min)
'Escape from Slavery' is an audio production from the essay written by Frederick Douglass and contains music with effects. Working as a dockworker in the mid-Atlantic state of Maryland, a young Frederick Douglass meditates on his indignant situation as a slave afforded a, relatively speaking, privileged position, with the luxury of “hiring out his time,” but with no legal entitlement to the wages earned from his labor.
He claims it was out of good luck and not out of courage. Men of
color working as slaves were closely monitored and controlled to ensure they never got their freedom. With the strong desire to become free men, many of these men who worked as slaves were able to come up with strategies to escape. Although the means of escape were dangerous and caused penalties to anyone who aided with their escape, they still pursued the desire for freedom. If the escapees were captured and their plans were discovered, the slave workers would be returned to their masters, and the means of escape would be abolished and the workers would be punished.
Produced and performed by Vincent Bagnall (43 min)
