Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Overseers/Masters

Master Andrew

A "cruel wretch" and "common drunkard" who wasted much of his father's property.

Colonel 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.

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.

Mr. 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."

"To describe the wealth of Colonel Lloyd would be almost equal to describing the riches of Job."

Find an example of allusion in Chapter 3.

Mr. Hopkins

He is "less cruel, less profane and made less noise, than Mr. Severe." Unlike Mr. Plummer, he takes no pleasure in whipping his slaves. The slaves called him "a good overseer."

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.

Mr. Covey

Mr. Covey is a poor farm renter who "acquired a very high reputation for breaking young slaves." He is also known as a "professor of religion."

Mr. Severe

Mr. Severe is a cruel overseer who "seemed to take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish barbarity." Douglass recalls how he had once seen Mr. Severe whip a woman so severely that it caused "the blood to run half an hour at this time...in the midst of her crying children, pleading for their mother's release." Many slaves residing on the plantation believe his death to be the work of a "divine Providence."

Mr. Gore

The overseer at Colonel Lloyd's plantation when Douglass was a young child, Gore was "proud, ambitious, and persevering" as well as "artful, cruel, and obdurate." He was a young man but quite serious and humorless. He was merciless in his treatment of the slaves, tolerating no critique of his behavior.

Mr. Plummer

The overseer of Captain Anthony, Mr. Plummer is "a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster." He takes pleasure in brutally whipping his slaves and seeing them suffer. Mr. Plummer is so cruel that even Captain Anthony "would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip him if he did not mind himself."

Hugh Auld

Thomas Auld's brother and 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 his brother Thomas, but he becomes harsher due to a drinking habit in his later years. Hugh seems to suffer from his 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.

"The men and women slaves received, as their monthly allowance, eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal. Their yearly clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts, one pair of linen trousers, one jacket, one pairs of trousers for winter...." "The children unable to work in the field had neither shoes, stockings, jackets, nor trousers, given to them; their clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts per year."

What is the monthly food and clothing allowance for an adult slave? What do the children receive?

"The principal products raised upon it were tobacco, corn, and wheat."

What is the purpose of the sloop Captain Auld commands?

"He was less cruel, less profane, and made less noise, than Mr. Severe. ... He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it."

Why do the slaves consider Mr. Hopkins to be a good overseer?