Excerpt from Chapter 10 of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Go on, go on, oh ships!

You are loosed from your moorings…[you] are free; [and] I am fast in my chains…a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, that fly [a]round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free! O, that I were on one of your gallant decks…under your protecting wing!

Go on, go on, oh ships!

…Why was I born a man…to make a brute! Why am I a slave? O God, save me…deliver me! Let me be free! [I shall not live and die as a slave.] I will not stand it. Get caught, or get clear, I’ll try it…I had [rather get]…killed running as die standing.

Go on, go on, oh ships!

…Only think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free!…I will take to the water. I will…walk straight through Delaware…and when I get there, I shall not be required to have a pass.

Go on, go on, oh ships! Only think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free! [Shall I] try it?