There were several hundred “free people of color” in Baltimore at this time. Their lot was one of inconceivable hardship. Yet no slave having purchased or having been granted his freedom ever voluntarily went back into slavery. Under the laws of the state, he had no rights as a citizen. At times he was restrained from working at certain occupations, from selling tobacco and other commodities without a certificate from the justice of peace. He couldn’t keep a dog, carry firearms, belong to a secret order, or sell spirituous liquors. The mere word of a white man could convict the Negro of any offense. And punishment was swift and severe. These people did what work they could for the smallest possible wages--as caulkers in the shipyards, hod carriers, dock workers. A few were good bricklayers and carpenters. No matter what their work, they had to take what they were given. Therefore, they were despised and hated by white workers who were often ousted by this cheaper labor. The rising merchant and business class of the city found it cheaper to employ such help for a few cents a week than to buy slaves to work in their homes. A master had some responsibility for his slave’s upkeep. He had none for his “paid servants.” So, Nada worked for Mrs. Hugh Auld from six o’clock in the morning until eight or nine at night. Then she disappeared down the alley--no one ever bothered to find out where. After supper Mrs. Auld came back to speak to Frederick. She was a Lloyd and remembered Frederick’s grandmother. Now she asked after her foster sister, Captain Auld’s wife, whom she had not seen for many years. She had a moment of nostalgia for those girlhood days on the plantation, and patted his arm. “You’ve grown to be a fine, upstanding boy,” she said. “We’re proud of you!” Master Thomas did not come. It was not until the next afternoon when he had been set to work in the shipyard that he heard a pleasant voice at his elbow. “Hello, Fred! They tell me you’re going to build ships.” He looked up at the tall, clean young man in his tailored suit. He tried to smile. “Yes, Massa Thomas,” he said, but his voice was gruff. Something like a veil slipped over the white man’s face. They stood there a moment facing each other. And the cloud, which in their boyhood had been no larger than a man’s hand, now enveloped them. Frederick hardly heard his words as he turned away. “Well--Good luck! So long!” Frederick never saw him again. A few days afterward Thomas Auld sailed on one of his father’s ships. A year later he was drowned in a gale off the coast of Calcutta. * * * * * William Gardiner, big shipbuilder on Fells Point, was having trouble. Some time before he had put down demands for higher wages in his yard by peremptorily hiring a number of colored mechanics and carpenters.