Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Study Guide Questions

Where and when was Frederick Douglass born? What was his name at birth? What did he know about his parents?

- He was born in Talbot County as Frederick Bailey. His mother was a slave (Harriet Bailey) and his father was white.

How old was Frederick Douglass when he wrote this narrative?

27-28

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.

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.

Mr. Severe

A cruel and profane overseer; his early death was considered an act of divine providence by the slaves.

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.

Rhetorical Question

A question asked merely for rhetorical effect and not requiring an answer

Tricolon

A series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses

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.

How did Master Daniel Lloyd treat the young Douglass?

Because he was young Master Lloyd protected Douglass from older boys and gave him food.

What motto did Douglass adopt in the free state. Why?

Because of his horrible past with tyrannical white men, Douglass adopted the motto "Trust no man." He saw every white man as an enemy because of his the hatred whites bestowed upon blacks. He saw all colored people as cause for distrust as well.

Colonel Edward Lloyd

Captain Anthony's boss and Douglass's first owner. Colonel Lloyd is an extremely rich man who owns all of the slaves and lands where Douglass grows up. Lloyd insists on extreme subservience from his slaves and often punishes them unjustly.

Lucretia Auld

Captain Anthony's daughter and Thomas Auld's wife. After Captain Anthony's death, Lucretia inherits half his property, including Douglass. Lucretia is as cruel an owner as her husband.

Douglass says that Mr. Gore was "cruel, artful, and obdurate." What are the examples that Douglass gives for each of these adjectives about Mr. Gore?

Cruel - able to inflict his sadistic punishments. Artful - He was cunning and artful enough to be devious Obdurate - He was able to stubbornly ignore his conscious and inflict inhumane punishment.

Describe the turning point in Douglass's life as a slave that happened when he was with Covey.

Douglass decided to fight back against Covey, and he realizes that he would rather die than be a slave.

Summarize Douglass's thoughts on the type of Christianity that he calls the slaveholding religion.

Douglass feels that he may be misunderstood and wants to explain that he is not anti-religion. He makes it clear that he is only against the religion of slaveholders; for Douglass, their religion is far removed from the "Christianity of Christ." To be Christian requires one to reject slavery.

How did Douglass feel about the underground railroad?

Douglass feels that the railroad is too publicized and, although the intent is honorable, it has made slave owners more aware.

What did Douglass do as a result of Covey's treatment of him? What was the result of Douglass's actions? What did Douglass do?

Douglass goes back to his old master to beg for help but it does not work and his old master sides with Covey. When he returns Covey is waiting with a whip and Douglass runs into the woods to hide.

What are Douglass's observations about this class of mulatto slaves in relation to the south and the American idea of the correctness of slavery?

Douglass observed that these slaves looked very different from the original African slaves and from white southerners. He thought their presence might do away with the reasoning that since God cursed Ham, then American slavery was right. Since so many of the slaves were of mixed blood, the reasoning that the descendants of Ham should be cursed would no longer apply.

What did Douglass think about Mr. Auld's comments? What did Douglass decide to do in light of the comments?

Douglass realized that the his comments were true and decides to learn to read.

To what did Douglass attribute his good fortune?

Douglass referred to it as a "good fortune from God"

What newspaper did Douglass begin to read? How did this newspaper affect his ideas and actions?

Douglass subscribed to "The Liberator," an abolitionist magazine, and slowly starts getting involved with the cause.

Why did Douglass want to hire himself out, even though Master Hugh took most of the wages?

Douglass wanted to hire himself out because it was the first step in his escape plan. He also wanted to feel the responsibilities of a freeman, and be allowed to stick to those responsibilities for a long period of time.

How old was Douglass when he read "The Columbian orator"? What effect did this book have on him?

Douglass was 12 years old. The book makes him hate his master and how to articulate the case against slavery.

What did Mrs. Auld teach Douglass to do? What did Mr. Auld say when he found out?

Douglass was taught the alphabet by Mrs. Auld and when her husband found out he told her that it was dangerous to teach a slave to read because it makes them discontented.

What happened to Douglass almost every week for the first six months that he lived with Covey?

Douglass was whipped nearly every week.

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.

Captain Anthony

Douglass's first master and probably his father. Anthony is the clerk for Colonel Lloyd, managing Lloyd's surrounding 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.

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 Anthonys. 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.

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."

Describe Frederick's relationship with his mother. Include the number of times they saw each other, what their visits were like, and Frederick's age when she died.

Douglass's mother had to walk 12 miles to his home. When they saw each other, there would be no talking, his mother would just lay with him and put him to sleep.

Harriet Bailey

Douglass's mother. She 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.

Describe Colonel Lloyd's method for keeping slaves out of his garden.

Douglass's observation about the reasons the slaves usually gave only positive, complimentary comments about their masters was that the masters spied the slaves. If ever a slave was caught saying something negative, they could be sold.

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.

Describe the slaves monthly allowance of food and yearly clothing. Describe their beds and bedding.

Each month the slaves receive eight pounds of pork or fish and one bushel of corn meal. They also got coarse linen shirts and linen shorts.

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.

Why does Douglass choose "Trust no man!" for his motto?

He can trust no one, white or black, with the knowledge that he is an escaped slave.

When did Douglass succeed in escaping? Where did he go? How did Douglass feel when he arrived in the free state?

He escaped on September 3 to New York and when he arrived he realized that he's in a strange place, he doesn't know anyone, and anyone could be trying to return him to captivity.

Douglass says that he was "somewhat unmanageable" when he first went to live with Covey. How does Douglass describe himself after he had been with Covey for a few months?

He felt broken in mind, body, and spirit. He considered taking his life.

What word did Douglass hear that was of interest to him? How did he find out the meaning? Why was this word interesting?

He found abolition interesting because it was always used in the connection of a slave. Everyone would always say it but he did not know what is means.

What did Covey do to Douglass when Douglass became sick while fanning wheat?

He gets angry at Douglass and pounds on him, and leaves him there.

What trade did Douglass learn? What was his situation at the end of a year of working at this trade? What was unfair about this situation?

He learns the trade of ship-building alongside whites and blacks. But the whites start a fight with the blacks in which Douglass gladly accepts and gets outmatched.

Summarize Douglass's thoughts when he looked at the ships on the Chesapeake Bay.

He said that the ships had more freedom than him, and he vows that he would do whatever it takes to be free.

Where did Master Thomas send Douglass, for how long, and why?

He sent Douglass to Mr. Covey because he was clever enough to learn how to get food from a nearby farm. He was sent to Mr. Covey, the "slave breaker" for one year.

What did Douglass think about his departure from Colonel Lloyd's plantation?

He thought of it as an interesting, new, and exciting time of his life.

How old was Douglass when he left the Lloyd plantation? Where did he go? With whom did he live there? What was his job?

He went to Baltimore when he was 7-8 years old. He worked/lived with Hugh Auld and was to take care of his son Thomas.

Describe how Douglass learned to write.

He would challenge the children of his neighborhood to write better than him and he would trace the words from a dictionary.

How did Douglass learn to read?

He would takes a book and some bread with him when he went to run errands and would give the poor children of his neighborhood bread in exchanging for helping him read the book.

Who was Douglass's first master? Also name the members of his family. Tell where they lived.

His first master was called Captain Anthony. He had two sons named Andrew and Richard, a daughter, Lucretia, and her husband, Thomas Auld. They all lived in a house on the plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd. Anthony was Lloyd's clerk.

Sophia Auld

Hugh Auld's wife. Sophia was a working woman before marrying Hugh, and she had never owned slaves. The corruption of owning a slave transforms Sophia from a sympathetic, kind woman into a vengeful monster.

Compare and contrast the treatment of slaves by the slave owners in the city with the slave owners on the plantations.

In the city slaves have more freedom. In the country slaves have a very limited freedom and are carefully watched by slave owners. In the city slaves are not whipped and are fed well compared to the South, where slave owners will often inflict cruel punishments and not feed their slaves.

Master Hugh sometimes gave Douglass six cents of his wages after he made six dollars, supposedly to encourage him. What effect did this have on Douglass?

Instead of making Douglass happy, it discontented him even further because he got a small taste of freely working, and he wanted the complete freedom.

What did Douglass say about the singing of the slaves? How did he feel about the songs?

It was a common belief that slaves sang because they were happy, but they were actually unhappy.

What event happened three years after Douglass began living in Baltimore that again reminded him that he detested slavery?

It was his master's ingratitude to his grandmother.

Captain Thomas Auld

Lucretia Auld's husband and Hugh Auld's brother. Thomas Auld did not grow up owning slaves, but gained them through his marriage to Lucretia. After attending a church meeting in Maryland, Thomas Auld becomes a "pious" man, but he uses his newfound Christianity to be even more self-righteously brutal toward his slaves.

Who helped Douglass and what were some of the results of his help?

Mr. Ruggles helped Douglass to find a place to stay and helps him to get married.

Mr.Gore

Mr.Hopkins' replacement; was cruel and did everything to please Colonel Lloyd

How did Mrs. Auld change during the time that Douglass lived with the Auld family? What made her change?

Mrs. Auld became stone hearted and started to have a more violent disposition than her husband. The change was becoming a slave owner and having Douglass.

Douglass says that Master Thomas was a mean man. Which of Thomas's practices was considered the meanest, even among slaveholders?

Not giving your slaves enough to eat.

What are Douglass's observations about the mulatto children--those who had a slave mother but a white father, who was usually the slave owner?

Observed that these slaves looked very different from the original African slaves and from white southerners. He thought their presence might do away with the reasoning that since God cursed Ham, then American slavery was right. Since so many of the slaves were of mixed blood, the reasoning that the descendants of Ham should be cursed would no longer apply.

Parallelism

Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other

Juxtaposition

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts

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.

William Lloyd Garrison

Prominent American abolitionist, journalist and social reformer. Editor of radical abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator", and one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Epistrophe

Repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses

What suggestion did another slave named Sandy Jenkins give to Douglass? What did Douglass do?

Sandy gives Douglass a special root and tells him that wearing it on his right arm will protect him. Douglass does it and he is temporarily spared for Covey.

Why didn't Douglass give all the details of his escape?

Slavery was still legal and the Underground Railroad was still working in secret.

Summarize Douglass's observations about the reasons the slaves usually gave only positive, complimentary comments about their masters.

The masters had spies among the slaves, and if it was reported that a slave said negative things, the slave could be sold off. Slaves also thought of their own situations as better than other slaves.

According to Douglass, what institution is the "mere covering for the most horrid crimes"? What type of slaveholders are the worst? Why does Douglass think this?

The mere covering for the most horrid crimes is southern religion.

Why did Douglass say that learning to read was a curse instead of a blessing?

The more Douglass learns to read, the more painful it becomes to remain a slave.

Describe how Frederick Bailey took the name of Douglass. Include all the name he used, including the name his mother gave him.

The name given to Frederick by his mother as Frederick Augustus washington Bailey. He had disposed of the two middle names before he had gotten to Maryland so as a slave he went by the name of Frederick Bailey. He then used Stanley in baltimore for a while, and then Frederick Johnson in New York. When he moved to New Bedford however, he changed his name again because there were too many people named Johnson. One of these men, suggested the name Douglass as he had been reading the "Lady of the Lake" which is where the name comes from.

Explain how, according to Douglass, Christmas holidays and alcohol serve to keep slaves in check.

These holidays serve as conductors, or safety-valves, to carry off the rebellious spirit of enslaved humanity. Douglass argued that plantation owners used the holiday season and the weeklong break from hard labor to stifle slave rebellion.

In what ways is slavery detrimental to the South?

They become implicit to the horrors of slavery

Describe Douglass's first attempt to run away. Tell who was with him, what the plan was, how far they got in the attempt, and what happened to each of the men after they were caught.

They decide to steal a canoe and row north, pretending to be fishermen. On the day of the departure, each of the slaves involved is tied up and put in jail. It is decided that Douglass was the leader and is sent back to work for Mr. Auld who then rents him out to a ship.

Who were Mr. Thomas Lanman, Mrs. Hick, and Mr. Beal Bondy? What did each of them do? What were the results of their actions?

They each killed slaves and were not punished because it was legal.

Hugh Auld

Thomas Auld's brother and Douglass's occasional master. He lives in Baltimore with his wife, Sophia. Thomas and Lucretia Auld allow him to borrow Douglass as a servant for his son, Thomas. He is well aware that whites maintain power over blacks by depriving them of education, and he unwittingly enlightens Douglass in this matter. He is not as cruel as his brother Thomas, but he becomes harsher due to a drinking habit in his later years. He 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.

What regret did Douglass express about the time when he was moved from Master Hugh's home to Master Thomas? Why did he have this regret?

Thomas regrets not escaping earlier because being was closer to the North, where he as a slave can escape to freedom. Now that he was being sent back to the South, he would be even further from freedom.

What did Mr. Gore do to the slave named Demby? Why did he do this? What punishment did Mr. Gore receive? Why?

When Demby did not obey his command to come out of the creek, Mr. Gore shot and killed him. He did this to ensure that his slaves stay in line and always obey him. Mr. Gore received no punishment because the witnesses were slaves who could not sue or testify against a white man.

David Ruggles

an anti-slavery activist who was active in the New York Committee of Vigilance and the Underground Railroad. He claimed to have led over six hundred people, including friend and fellow abolitionist Frederick Douglass, to freedom in the North.

In what ways does Douglass's life change when he goes to Baltimore?

he encountered "a white face [Mrs. Auld] beaming with the most kindly emotions

Hypophora

raising a question then proceeding to answer it

Anadiplosis

repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause

Antithesis

the direct opposite, a sharp contrast

Asyndeton

the omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence.

Polysyndeton

the use, for rhetorical effect, of more conjunctions than is necessary or natural

Douglass's views on religious hypocrisy

through his narrative Douglass is making the case that slavery is incompatible with true Christianity, and in doing so making the case against slavery on religious grounds.