master’s children. By the time he was eight it was time for Douglass to pack up and move again. This time he was sent to Baltimore to live with Hugh Auld. Auld was the brother of Aaron Anthony’s son-in-law, Thomas Auld. Hugh was the owner of a plantation and with him lived his wife Sophia and their son Thomas. Frederick and Thomas were about the same age and Douglass became his playmate as well as his guardian. Like he did earlier with Lucretia and Daniel at the Wye House, Frederick felt a sense of family. He became very close with Sophia and she began to treat him like he was a half brother to little Tommy. Throughout his childhood Douglass was always very alert to acts of kindness by whites and experiences like this and those back at the Lloyd Plantation fueled his disdain for slavery. They made him aware of human oneness and the inhumanity of slavery.In urban Baltimore, a slave’s life was very different from that of a field hand. Here Douglass enjoyed various privileges and opportunities that were denied to plantation slaves. This new setting provided a rich environment that helped to develop his natural intellectual abilities and allowed him to be exposed to different and interesting people. City slaves were sometimes hired out to merchants and maybe the wages they earned would be used to buy their freedom, if the master allowed them to it. Soon he became interested in learning to read after hearing Mistress Sophia reading the Bible aloud. She readily agreed to teach young Frederick to read. This was a very bold move by Sophia because it was very dangerous to teach a slave anything. Especially so soon after the slave codes had been passed. Sophia taught him the alphabet and the basics of reading. She made an untimely mistake however. Mrs. Auld decided to share the news of Frederick’s progress with Master Hugh. He ordered her to cease these lessons at once. "…Learning will spoil...
