boring in the Deep South. After a few months of speaking, Douglass began to add comments about the racial situation in the North. He reminded the people in his audiences that even in Massachusetts a black man could not always find work in his chosen profession. He described how he had been thrown out of railroad cars that were exclusively for white passengers. Even here, he said, churches segregated their congregations and offered blacks a second place in heaven. After Douglass's first trial period as a lecturer was over, he was asked to continue with his work, and he eagerly agreed. During 1842, he traveled throughout Massachusetts and New York with William Lloyd Garrison and other prominent speakers. He also visited Rhode Island, helping to defeat a measure that would have given voting rights to poor whites while denying them to blacks. In 1843, Douglass participated in the Hundred Conventions project, the American Anti-Slavery Society's six month tour of meeting halls throughout the west. Although Douglass enjoyed his work immensely, his job was not an easy one. When traveling, the lecturers had to live in poor accommodations. Douglass was often roughly handled when he refused to sit in the "Negro" sections of trains and steamships, and worst of all some of the meetings that were held in western states were sometimes disrupted by proslavery mobs. In Pendleton, Indiana, Douglass's hand was broken when he and an associate were beaten up by a gang of thugs. Such incidents were common on the western frontier, where abolitionists were often viewed as dangerous fanatics. Despite these incidents, Douglass was sure that he had found his purpose in life. His abilities as a speaker grew as he continued to lecture in 1844. Many abolitionists thought he was growing in his ability too quickly and that audiences were no longer as sympathetic to him, they thought it was best to keep a little of the plantation speech, it was not a good idea for him ...
