nto
competition with that of the colored people at all; but it was too much
to strike directly at the interest of the slaveholders; and, therefore
proving their servility and cowardice they dealt their blows on the
poor, colored freeman, and aimed to prevent _him_ from serving himself,
in the evening of life, with the trade{241} with which he had served his
master, during the more vigorous portion of his days. Had they succeeded
in driving the black freemen out of the ship-yard, they would have
determined also upon the removal of the black slaves. The feeling was
very bitter toward all colored people in Baltimore, about this time
(1836), and they--free and slave suffered all manner of insult and
wrong.

Until a very little before I went there, white and black ship carpenters
worked side by side, in the ship yards of Mr. Gardiner, Mr. Duncan, Mr.
Walter Price, and Mr. Robb. Nobody seemed to see any impropriety in it.
To outward seeming, all hands were well satisfied. Some of the blacks
were first rate workmen, and were given jobs requiring highest skill.
All at once, however, the white carpenters knocked off, and swore that
they would no longer work on the same stage with free Negroes. Taking
advantage of the heavy contract resting upon Mr. Gardiner, to have the
war vessels for Mexico ready to launch in July, and of the difficulty
of getting other hands at that season of the year, they swore they would
not strike another blow for him, unless he would discharge his free
colored workmen.

Now, although this movement did not extend to me, _in form_, it did
reach me, _in fact_. The spirit which it awakened was one of malice and
bitterness, toward colored people _generally_, and I suffered with the
rest, and suffered severely. My fellow apprentices very soon began
to feel it to be degrading to work with me. They began to put on high
looks, and to talk contemptuously and maliciously of _"the Niggers;"_
saying, that "they would take the country," that "they ought to be
killed." Encouraged by the cowardly workmen, who, knowing me to be a
slave, made no issue with Mr. Gardiner about my being there, these young
men did their utmost to make it impossible for me to stay. They seldom
called me to do any thing, without coupling the call with a curse, and
Edward North, the biggest in every thing, rascality included, ventured
to strike me, whereupon I picked him up, and threw{242} him into the
dock. Whenever any of them struck me, I s