Douglass does not respond to them for fear they might

doomed to be a slave for life, the sailors encourage him to run away to the North. Douglass does not respond to them, for fear they
might be trying to trick him. White men are known to encourage slaves to escape and then recapture them for the reward money. But
the idea of escape nonetheless sticks in Douglass’s head.
Meanwhile, Douglass sets out to learn how to write. After watching ships’ carpenters write single letters on lumber, Douglass learns to
form several letters. He practices his letters on fences, walls, and the ground around the city. He approaches local boys and starts
contests over who can write the best. Douglass writes what he can and learns from what the boys write. Soon, he can copy from the
dictionary. When the Aulds leave Douglass alone in the house, he writes in Thomas Auld’s old discarded copybooks. In this painstaking
manner, Douglass eventually learns to write.

Summary: Chapter VIII
During Douglass’s first several years in Baltimore, his old master, Captain Anthony, dies. When Douglass is between ten and eleven
years old, he is returned to the plantation to be appraised among the other slaves and the livestock, which are to be divided between
Captain Anthony’s surviving children, Mrs. Lucretia Auld and Andrew Anthony. Douglass is apprehensive about leaving Baltimore
because he knows his life in the city is preferable to the plantation.
The valuation of the slaves is humiliating, as they are inspected alongside the livestock. All the slaves are anxious, knowing they are to
be divided regardless of marriages, family, and friendships. Master Andrew is known for his cruelty and drunkenness, so everyone
hopes to avoid becoming his property. Since Douglass’s return to the plantation, he has seen Master Andrew kick Douglass’s younger
brother in the head until he bled. Master Andrew has threatened to do the same to Douglass.
Luckily, Douglass is assigned to Mrs. Lucretia Auld, who sends him back to Baltimore. Soon after Douglass returns there, Mrs. Lucretia
and Master Andrew both die, leaving all the Anthony family property in the hands of strangers. Neither Lucretia nor Andrew frees any of
the slaves before dying—not even Douglass’s grandmother, who nurtured Master Andrew from infancy to death. Because Douglass’s
grandmother is deemed too old to work in the fields, her new owners abandon her in a small hut in the woods. Douglass bemoans this
cruel fate. He imagines that if his grandmother were still alive today, she would be cold and lonely, mourning the loss of her children.
About two years after the death of Lucretia Auld, her husband, Thomas Auld, remarries. Soon after the marriage, Thomas has a falling
out with his brother, Hugh, and punishes Hugh by reclaiming Douglass. Douglass is not sorry to leave Hugh and Sophia Auld, as Hugh
has become a drunk and Sophia has become cruel. But Douglass is sorry to leave the local boys, who have become his friends and
teachers.