My Bondage and My Freedom

Colonel Lloyd was the owner of a sprawling plantation on the Wye River. He came from a wealthy, “old and honored” (55) Maryland family that originated in Wales. The Lloyd plantation was one of the largest and most fertile in Maryland. His chief butler on the plantation was Douglass’s enslaver. Colonel Lloyd had six children—three boys named Edward, Murray, and Daniel—and three girls. Colonel Lloyd likely also had another son—William Wilks, a coachman whom Lloyd sold away at the encouragement of his legitimate son, Murray, whom Wilks strongly resembled. Wilks was the probable result of Lloyd raping a woman whom he enslaved long after Wilks bought his own freedom, possibly with Colonel Lloyd’s help, and moved to Baltimore.

Douglass depicts Colonel Lloyd as a distant and extraordinarily wealthy man—a prototype for the wealthy Southern planter. He adhered to the neoclassical hierarchy of plantation life and, therefore, usually distanced himself from the people whom he enslaved, not even bothering to whip them. Only Old Barney, one of his stable hands, was an exception to this rule. While stingy with the enslaved people on his plantation, Colonel Lloyd was famously hospitable to his guests and maintained a crew of people enslaved in the house who ensured that hospitality.

Douglass’s first enslaver, whom he frequently refers to as “old master.” Captain Anthony was the chief butler on Colonel Edward Lloyd’s plantation, charged with tasks as varied as overseeing overseers, managing the skilled workers’ shops, keeping the storehouses, and doling out the enslaved people’s food portions. Captain Anthony was not a wealthy enslaver but did well. He enslaved 30 people and held three farms in Tuckahoe. He sold one person per year at $700 or $800 per head. This revenue came in addition to his yearly salary as a butler and the revenue he earned from selling his crops.

Douglass describes Captain Anthony as an old man who only occasionally displayed kindness. When he paid attention to Douglass, he sometimes took him by the hand, patted him on the head, and called him his “little Indian boy” (88). Usually, Captain Anthony looked troubled, frequently muttered to himself, and sometimes stormed about in a frenzy of rage. He could become violently angry over the simplest offenses.

Captain Anthony had three children—two sons named Andrew and Richard and a daughter, Lucretia, who was married to Captain Thomas Auld. When he died and left his estate unsettled, Douglass eventually went to Lucretia.

Gore was an overseer who replaced the relatively gentle Mr. Hopkins. He lived in St. Michael’s, a town in Talbot County. Gore’s style of managing enslaved people was as cruel as that of his late predecessor Mr. Sevier, though Mr. Gore was not vulgar like Sevier. Douglass recalls that, under his rule, there was more “violence and bloodshed” on the plantation than ever before (126). Douglass describes Gore as an artful and meanly ambitious man. He had dark, piercing eyes that Douglass recalls as having been black, and a “sharp, shrill voice” that invoked terror within the enslaved people (127). Though he was lower-class, like other overseers, he had none of “the disgusting swagger and noisy bravado of his fraternity” (127). Instead, Gore was self-possessed and stern. He tolerated no impudence and, unlike other overseers, indulged in no jokes with his charges. He remained reserved, even unapproachable, like a plantation enslaver.

Gore’s cruelty was methodical and unrelenting and plays a significant role in Douglass’s elaboration of The Dehumanizing Effects of Enslavement. When a young enslaved man named Bill Denby, or Demby, refused to emerge from a creek, where he had fled after Gore struck him a few times, Gore shot the young man dead. Unlike Sevier, who was a sadist, Gore was cold and discerning in his work as an overseer, suggesting that he sought to gain a reputation in his field so that he could, thereby, raise his station.

Lucretia was the only daughter of Captain Aaron Anthony, the sister of Andrew Anthony, and the wife of Thomas Auld. Douglass expresses some fondness for her due to the pity that she took on him when a fellow enslaved person injured him. She serves as a contrast to Aunt Katy, not simply for being white and privileged but also for the maternal kindness that she displayed toward Douglass when he felt most dejected. Not long after her father died, Lucretia inherited Douglass and decided, with her husband, to send him back to Baltimore. Shortly after Douglass’s return, Lucretia died, leaving behind her husband and their daughter, Amanda. Andrew also died soon thereafter.

Katy was the cook on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, referred to as “aunt” as a title of respect. Katy was a cruel woman with little patience for children, particularly young Frederick, whom she beat and sometimes starved. Though Katy was enslaved in the house and thrust into a maternal role, Douglass’s description of her contradicts the commercialized stereotype of the warm, maternal enslaved woman. He describes Aunt Katy as “the sable virago,” whose “fiery wrath was [his] constant dread” (66).

She answered to Douglass’s enslaver, with whom she held a position of respect, due to her being “a first rate cook” (84). She worked hard and was the only enslaved woman allowed to keep her children, though she was no kinder to them than to others. Douglass recalls an instance in which she chopped at her son Phil’s arm, leaving a deep gash. For this crime, the old enslaver threatened her with a whipping. The old enslaver allowed her to dole out food portions to the young enslaved people. In these instances, her maternal feeling arose, for she always gave her own children the most food while practically starving the others.

Aunt Katy is a study of what happened to enslaved Black women regarded as little more than the means through which enslavers might enslave more people. Katy developed no maternal feeling because the enslavement system did not allow Black women to assert their roles as mothers. What Douglass felt as cruelty may have been a perverse form of self-preservation for a woman who wanted to avoid the pain of growing attached to children, including her own, whom she could lose at the whims of her enslaver.

Hugh was the brother of Thomas Auld, the son-in-law of Douglass’s enslaver, and the brother-in-law of Lucretia Auld. He was also the husband of Sophia Auld and the father of Thomas “Tommy” Auld. Unlike his wife, Hugh was not religious and measured his personal value according to his success in business. His business was shipbuilding, which occupied most of his time. He later faced misfortunes in his business, leading to his taking a job as a foreman.

Though his wife’s sweetness was so infectious that he sometimes smiled, Hugh was a generally sour man, though he never expressed much cruelty. Douglass remained largely in the care of Sophia anyway during the first couple of years that he lived in the Aulds’ household. He differed strongly from Sophia, however, in literacy for enslaved people. He demanded that his wife discontinue teaching Douglass to read, fearing that the skill would make him unhappy with his lot.

Thomas was the brother of Hugh Auld, the husband of Lucretia, and the father of their daughter, Amanda. He was also the brother-in-law of Sophia Auld and the uncle of Thomas “Tommy” Auld, his namesake. After Lucretia died, Thomas married Rowena Hamilton, the eldest daughter of the wealthy Eastern Shore enslaver, William Hamilton. After Captain Anthony’s death, Lucretia inherited Douglass from her father. After her death, Douglass became the legal property of Thomas who hired Douglass out to Hugh. Occasional quarrels between the brothers complicated Douglass’s living situation, once requiring the latter to have to go to his legal enslaver’s home in St. Michael’s.

Douglass describes Thomas as stingy and exceptionally selfish. The fact that he was not a born enslaver but one who had inherited human chattel from his wife made him eager to prove himself. Douglass recalls that he loved to dominate his enslaved people but lacked consistency in his rule. He revealed less authority than meanness.

Sophia was the wife of Hugh Auld, the sister-in-law of Thomas and Lucretia Auld, and the mother of Thomas “Tommy” Auld. Douglass describes her as a woman who, upon their first meeting, emanated kindness. She treated Douglass like a child, not as an enslaved person. He came to regard her as a surrogate mother.

Sophia was a very devout woman. She attended church frequently and often read Scripture. She innocently taught Douglass how to read, at his request, but her husband quickly dissuaded her from this task. Though she obeyed Hugh and submitted to his instruction on how to treat an enslaved person properly, her character changed for the worse as a result. She lost some of her kindness and became even more violently opposed to Douglass’s enrichment than her husband was, as though trying to best Hugh.

Douglass’s description of Sophia illustrates how enslavement also robbed enslavers of their humanity. However, her unquestioned submission to her husband also reveals the extent to which white patriarchy dominated white women, too. Sophia’s quiet obedience to her husband’s rules suggests an unwillingness to critique the system in which she exists out of possible fear of losing her privileges within it. Nevertheless, Douglass pitied her and regarded them both as victims of an evil system.