After learning to calk, I sought my own employment, made my own contracts, and collected my own earnings; giving Master Hugh no trouble in any part of the transactions to which I was a party.
From his autobiography, this passage details Douglass's growing independence and agency as he began to manage his own labor and earnings while still enslaved.
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More from Frederick Douglass
The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.
I looked into this kitchen with peculiar interest, and remembered that it was there I last saw my mother.
I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.
A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.