No slave wants to live on a plantation in the country, and
Douglass is somewhat luckier than most in this regard. For much
of his life, he lives in Baltimore, where slaves are treated
better, and which is an easier place from which to escape to
freedom. In the country slaves are often whipped brutally, and
they are rarely given enough food or clothing. Slave owners in
the city would be ashamed for their neighbors to see their
slaves going without enough food or clothing. In the city,
Douglass learns to read and meets a wide variety of people who
help him on his road to freedom: the white children who help him
learn to read and write, the sailors who teach him a trade, and
people from the North who show him that not all whites are slave
owners.