Brown, accompanied by Onion, travels by train to Rochester, New York, to talk with Frederick Douglass. Douglass delivers his famous July 4th speech. Douglass tells Brown that he cannot help him by organizing support among the blacks, as Brown wanted. Douglass is a somewhat pompous lecher, though smart and educated; he has two wives, one black and one white. He attempts to seduce Onion. Onion and John meet Emperor, a black escaped slave who is living with Douglass.
