s and reading the newspaper. Second, in order to achieve writing skills he observed how the carpenters in the shipyard wrote. For example, if a piece of wood were meant for the larboard side they would write thus--L. Furthermore, when he encountered any boy that could write he would trick them by stating he could write better than they could and using the letters that he learned in the shipyard he would tell them to beat that. He would carefully observe what they wrote and every chance he got; he practiced on the walls, pavement and wooden fences with chalk. In addition, his master's son, Thomas, brought home copybooks from school, Douglass would write over what Thomas wrote. Within a couple of years Douglass was able to read and write. Finally, in 1835 Douglass made his first attempt to obtain freedom while living with Master Freeland. He did not wish to achieve freedom alone, therefore, he approached slaves that lived in the house, and they all agreed to escape together. However, the authorities and his master foiled this attempt because someone betrayed them. This setback did not stop Douglass; he was still determined to obtain freedom. Finally, after a long period of time passed, Douglass made the decision to escape on the third day of September, 1838. This time he succeeded in breaking from the chains of slavery. How he escaped will forever remain a secret, for revealing this would had prevented other slaves from escaping his or her chains. In summary, Douglass' move to Baltimore opened his eyes to the way city slaves were treated differently from the ones on the plantation. Meeting his Mistress Sophia, which paved a road for him to overcome his literacy, was of great importance in leading to his determination to obtain freedom in which he succeeded....
