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152 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

internal excitement and anxiety which I had experienced two years and a half
before. The failure in that instance was not calculated to increase my confi-
dence in the success of this, my second attempt; and I knew that a second
failure could not leave me where my first did. I must either get to the far
North or be sent to the far South. Besides the exercise of mind from this state
of facts, I had the painful sensation of being about to separate from a circle
of honest and warm-hearted friends. The thought of such a separation, where
the hope of ever meeting again was excluded, and where there could be no
correspondence, was very painful. It is my opinion that thousands more
would have escaped from slavery but for the strong affection which bound
them to their families, relatives, and friends. The daughter was hindered by
the love she bore her mother, and the father by the love he bore his wife and
children, and so on to the end of the chapter. I had no relations in Baltimore,
and I saw no probability of ever living in the neighborhood of sisters and
brothers; but the thought of leaving my friends was the strongest obstacle to
my running away. The last two days of the week, Friday and Saturday, were
spent mostly in collecting my things together for my journey. Having worked
four days that week for my master, I handed him six dollars on Saturday
night. I seldom spent my Sundays at home, and for fear that something might
be discovered in my conduct, I kept up my custom and absented myself all
day. On Monday, the third day of September, 1838, in accordance with my
resolution, I bade farewell to the city of Baltimore, and to that slavery which
had been my abhorrence from childhood.