The Narrative of Frederick Douglass is a memoir of a former slave who is known now as an abolitionist. This autobiography takes place in Eastern Shore of Maryland; Baltimore; New York City; New Bedford, Massachusetts. Douglass serves his life on a plantation where life is not thought to be that difficult. Being a child, he serves in the household instead of in the fields. At a very young age he was given to Hugh Auld, who lived in Baltimore (Douglass 1845). In Baltimore, Douglass lives more freely.
In general, city slave-owners are more aware of not making them look cruel when handling slave so that their neighbors would not think of them as evil. Sophia Auld, Hugh’s wife, has never owned slaves before, and therefore she is very nice to Douglass at first. She begins to teach Douglass how to read, but is later on ordered to stop because in order to have control over a slave they must be ignorant. Knowledge is power and to keep a slave down you keep them down. Eventually, Sophia succumbs to the mentality of slave owning and loses her natural kindliness.
Though Sophia and Hugh Auld become crueler toward him, Douglass still liked Baltimore and is able to teach himself to read with the help of local boys. As he learns to read and write, Douglass becomes aware of the evils of slavery and of the existence of the abolitionist, or antislavery, movement. He resolves to escape to the North eventually. After the deaths of Captain Anthony and his remaining heirs, Douglass is taken back to serve Thomas Auld, Captain Anthony’s son-in-law. Auld is very cruel and is made to be harsher by his false religious piety.
Auld considers Douglass to be very hard to manage, so Auld rents him for one year to Edward Covey, a man known for “breaking” slaves (Douglass 1845). Covey manages, in the first six months, to break Douglass. Douglass becomes a discouraged, which makes him no longer interested in educating himself or seeking freedom. He is only able to rest and heal his wounds. The turning point comes when Douglass results to fighting Covey. The two men have a prolonged duel, which results in Covey never touching Douglass again. His year with Covey was over, Douglass is next traded off to William Freeland for about two years.
Though Freeland is a more mild mannered, Douglass’s still is seeking to escape for freedom. At Freeland’s, Douglass begins educating slaves at the homes of free blacks. Despite violent threats of punishment and v, many slaves from neighboring farms come to Douglass and work extremely hard to learn. Douglass also forms a plan of escape with three slaves who he is close to. One betrays their plan to Freeland, and Douglass and the others are taken to jail. Thomas Auld then sends Douglass back to Baltimore with Hugh Auld, to learn the trade of ship caulking. In Baltimore’s trade industry, there is conflict between race relations.
White workers fear they will lose their job to free black slaves. Though only an apprentice and still a slave, Douglass encounters violent tactics to be perceived as intimidation from his white coworkers and is forced to switch shipyards. In his new apprenticeship, Douglass rapidly learns the trade system and soon earns the highest wages as possible, but ends up always turning them over to Hugh Auld. Later on, Douglass gets permission from Hugh Auld to get extra time. He saves money to escape to New York. Douglass does not describe the details of his escape in because he wants to protect the future slaves who may attempt the journey.
In New York, Douglass is afraid that he will be captured again and changes his name from Bailey to Douglass after, he gets married Anna Murray, who is a free woman he met while in Baltimore. They moved north to Massachusetts, where Douglass becomes very active with the abolitionist movement as both a writer and an orator. This memoir was has many issues, but he main issues are that Frederick Douglass has a very difficult time freeing himself, mentally and physically, from slavery, and the treatment of slaves as property. The theme is that ignorance keeps one down and keeps one in bondage, and also that knowledge is power.
The characters are very complex in the memoir. Captain Anthony, Douglass’s first master and also thought to be his father. Anthony is the clerk for Colonel Lloyd, managing the plantations and the overseers of those plantations. Anthony is a cruel man who takes pleasure in whipping his slaves, especially Douglass’s Aunt Hester. He is called “Captain” because he once piloted ships up the Chesapeake Bay (Douglass 1845). Colonel Edward Lloyd, Captain Anthony’s boss and Douglass’s first owner. Colonel Lloyd is a rich man who owned all of the slaves and lands where Douglass grew up. He often unjustly punishes his the slaves.
Lucretia Auld , Anthony’s daughter and Thomas Auld’s wife. After Captain Anthony’s death, Lucretia inherits half his property, including Douglass. Lucretia is just as crul as her husband. Captain Thomas Auld , Lucretia’s husband and Hugh Auld’s brother. Thomas Auld did not own slaves he inherited them from Lucretia. He uses religion to justify his brutal atics on the slaves. Hugh Auld, Thomas Auld’s brother and also Douglass’s occasional master. Hugh lives in Baltimore with his wife, Sophia. Thomas and Lucretia Auld allow Hugh to borrow Douglass as a servant for Hugh’s son, Thomas.
Hugh is well aware that whites maintain power over blacks by depriving them of education, and he unwittingly enlightens Douglass in this matter. Hugh is not as cruel as Thomas, but he becomes cruel due to a drinking habit . Hugh seems to suffer some consciousness that slavery and the law’s treatment of blacks are inhumane, but he does not allow this consciousness to interfere with his exercising power over Douglass and many other slaves. Sophia Auld , Hugh Auld’s wife. Sophia was a working woman before marrying Hugh, h never owned slaves. The corruption of owning a slave changes Sophia.
Edward Covey, A notorious slave “breaker” and Douglass’s keeper for one year. Slave owners send their unruly slaves to Covey, who works and punishes them (thus getting free labor to cultivate his rented land) and returns them trained and docile. Covey’s tactics as a slaveholder are both cruel and sneaky. He is deliberately deceptive and devious when interacting with his slaves, creating an atmosphere of constant surveillance and fear. Betsy Bailey, Douglass’s grandmother. Betsy raised Douglass on Captain Anthony’s land after Douglass’s mother was taken away.
Betsy served the Anthony family her whole life and had many children and grandchildren who became slaves for the Anthony’s. After seeing Captain Anthony’s children from birth to death, Betsy is abandoned to a hut in the woods instead of being allowed to go free. Aunt Hester, Douglass’s aunt. Aunt Hester is an exceptionally beautiful and noble-looking woman, superior to most white and black women. Captain Anthony is extraordinarily interested in Hester, and she therefore suffers countless whippings at his hands. Harriet Bailey, Douglass’s mother.
Harriet is separated from Douglass after his birth, but she still attempts to maintain family relations by walking twelve miles to see him at night. She dies when Douglass is young. Sandy Jenkins ,A slave acquaintance of Douglass. The highly superstitious Sandy stands in the Narrative as a representative of all uneducated, superstitious slaves. Sandy is kind to Douglass when Douglass runs away from Covey’s, but the Narrative also implies that Sandy may have informed William Freeland about Douglass’s plans to escape. William Freeland ,Douglass’s keeper for two years following his time with Covey.
Freeland is the most fair and straightforward of all Douglass’s masters and is not hypocritically pious. Douglass acknowledges Freeland’s exceptional fairness with a pun on his name—”free land. ” William Hamilton , Father-in-law of Thomas Auld. After Lucretia Auld’s death, Thomas remarries Hamilton’s oldest daughter. Hamilton himself sometimes takes charge of Douglass, as when Hamilton arrests Douglass for plotting to escape from Freeland. William Gardner , A Baltimore shipbuilder. Hugh Auld sends Douglass to Gardner to learn the trade of caulking.
Gardner’s shipyard is disorderly with racial tension between free-black carpenters and white carpenters, and Gardner is under pressure to complete several ships for a deadline. Anna Murray, Douglass’s wife. Anna is a free black woman from Baltimore who becomes engaged to Douglass before he escapes to freedom. After his escape, Anna and Douglass marry in New York and then move to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Nathan Johnson , A Massachusetts worker and abolitionist. Johnson is immediately kind and helpful to the Douglasses, loaning them money, helping Douglass find work, and suggesting Douglass’s new name.
Johnson is well informed on national politics and keeps a nice household. William Lloyd Garrison, Founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison meets Douglass when Douglass is persuaded to tell his history at an abolitionist convention in Nantucket in 1841. Immediately impressed with Douglass’s poise and with the power of his story, Garrison hires him for the abolitionist cause. Wendell Phillips, President of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Phillips considers Douglass a close friend. He admires Douglass’s bravery in publishing his history without pseudonyms, but also fears for Douglass’s safety.
