ABSTRACT
Years had passed and great changes had taken place since Uncle Lawson, the old coloured preacher, who had been Frederick Douglass's first spiritual teacher and comforter, had solemnly told him that "the Lord had a great work for him to do," and that he must prepare to do it. The latter believed that his young protégé was to become a preacher of the gospel, because that seemed the only possible future of the slave upon whom unusual gifts had been bestowed. But Douglass had reached the conclusion that, if any great work had been assigned him, it was in the direction of securing the freedom of the members of his race in bonds. In the summer of 1841, the opportunity, long waited for, came. For the first time since he came to New Bedford he determined to take a holiday for the purpose of going to Nantucket and becoming as much as possible a part of the anti-slavery meeting.
