At the end of the year William Freeland rode over to St. Michaels and renewed his contract with Captain Auld for his boy’s services. He reported that the slave had worked well; he had no complaints to make. Captain Auld’s eyes glittered when he took the money. Evidently that buck was turning out all right. Another year and he’d bring a good price in the market.
The master was really touched by Frederick’s gratitude when told that he was to remain on. As a matter of fact, Frederick had been deeply worried. As the year had drawn to a close he felt he had wasted valuable time. There was much to do—plans to make and lines to be carefully laid—before he made his break for freedom.
Another Christmas and a new year. And New Year’s Day was a time to start things right. Everybody knew that!
They heard it first in the yard, of course. Black Crunch had run away! When the horsemen came galloping up the drive not a pickaninny was in sight. Old Caleb opened the front door and bowed with his beautiful deference. But they shoved him out of the way unceremoniously, calling for the master. Old Missus sniffed the air disdainfully, standing very straight, but Master William rode off with them.
The next night all along the Eastern Shore slaves huddled, shivering in dark corners. The baying of the hounds kept some white folks awake, too. They didn’t find Black Crunch. They never found Black Crunch.
There was a hazy tension in the air. The five friends bound themselves together with a solemn oath of secrecy—Frederick, Handy, Henry, John, and Sandy. They were going together—all five. John pleaded for his sweetheart, little Susan, to be taken along; and Sandy knew the danger that threatened his wife if he left her. Though a free woman herself, she could be snatched back into bondage if he ran away. Noma knew this also. Yet the woman said simply, “Go!”
The Eastern Shore of Maryland lay very close to the free state of Pennsylvania. Escape might not appear too formidable an undertaking. Distance, however, was not the chief trouble. The nearer the lines of a slave state were to the borders of a free state, the more vigilant were the slavers. At every ferry was a guard, on every bridge sentinels, in every wood patrols and slave-hunters. Hired kidnappers also infested the borders.
Nor did reaching a free state mean freedom for the slave. Wherever caught they could be returned to slavery. And their second lot would be far worse than the first! Slaveholders constantly impressed upon their slaves the boundlessness of slave territory and their own limitless power.
Frederick and his companions had only the vaguest idea of the geography of the country. “Up North” was their objective. They had heard of Canada, they had heard of New York, they had heard of Boston. Of what lay in between they had no thoughts at all.
After many long discussions they worked out their plan for escape. On the Saturday night before the Easter holidays they would take a large canoe owned by a Mr. Hamilton, launch out into Chesapeake Bay and paddle with all their might for its head, a distance of about seventy miles. On reaching this point they would turn the canoe adrift and bend their steps toward the north star until they reached a free state.