Iva Heribanová
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
AJ17051 African American History and Culture
27 April 2021

                          Frederick Douglass’s Family-like Relationships

Born a slave, Frederick Douglass was deprived of the most fundamental family relationships. He was
separated from his mother, never learnt who his father was and his biological siblings were not of
a great significance to him. Yet the need to create and maintain close bonds with others is common
to everyone and Douglass is no exception. Throughout his memoir, he mentions various examples of
relationships that are almost family-like. These create at least fleeting sense of belonging for a
person whose status of a slave dooms him to never fully connect with other people.

In the first chapters of Douglass’s autobiography, in which he portrays the early years of his
childhood on the plantations of Colonel Lloyd, there are almost no instances of possible
family-like relationships being created. Most of these chapters consist of depictions of the
cruelties that Douglass had to witness from a very young age. One of the few mentions of kinder
behaviour is that of Master Daniel Lloyd, with whom Douglass spends his leisure time as a child,
helping him hunt birds. He notes how Lloyd became attached to him, “and was a sort of protector of
[him],” not allowing “the older boys to impose upon [him]” (Douglass 23). Douglass, however, does
not mention anything alluding to his reciprocation of such attachment. Master Daniel Lloyd,
although behaving in almost fatherly manner, remains solely a master to him.

As Douglass is sent to Baltimore to his new master, Mr. Auld, he finds a mother-like figure in Mrs.
Auld, “a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings” (Douglass 26). Mrs. Auld, lacking previous
experience in slaveholding, behaves benignly towards Douglass and begins to teach him to read. Yet
this state of their relationship lasts only a short period: after Mr. Auld discovers his wife’s
actions, he firmly forbids her to continue, explaining the dangers the teaching poses. Thus, Mrs.
Auld grows hostile towards Douglass.

However, Douglass’s seven-year stay at the Aulds does not allow them to remain unaffected when
seeing him heavily injured after the incident with the white apprentices at Gardner’s shipyard
during Douglass’s second period in Baltimore. They react to it as parents would: Mr. Auld manifests
“his strong indignation at it” while Mrs. Auld treats Douglass “with a mother’s tenderness”
(Douglass 55). When Douglass’s wound heals, Mr. Auld arranges a position for him at a different
shipyard, safe from aggression of others.

There are also brotherly-like relationships created during Douglass’s first Baltimore stay. These
are the ones developed outside of the Auld family, with the boys that Douglass tricks into helping
him improve his reading and writing abilities. When describing his first departure from Baltimore,
he notes that “[i]t was to those little Baltimore boys that [he] felt the strongest attachment” and
that “the thought of leaving them was painful indeed” (Douglass 34). Douglass expresses only
positive feelings about those boys, who, probably not yet strongly infected with the predominating
racism, saw him as one of them.

Douglass’s ability to read and write forms a fundamental point in creating strong bonds with other
slaves whom he teaches in a secret Sabbath school while living with Mr. Freeland. As a result,
Douglass is unable to perform his first attempt on an escape without offering his closest
fellow-slaves an opportunity to run away as a group. Apart from one, they all agree. Therefore,
Douglass acquires a position of an older and wiser brother in the group, arranging all necessities
for their try. Interestingly, one of his companions is in an actual blood relation to him. Yet that
he is Douglass’s uncle is mentioned only briefly and it does not make their relationship any
stronger.

Douglass recalls similar difficulties with his second attempt on an escape: “I had a number of
warmhearted friends in Baltimore, friends that I loved almost as I did my life, and the thought of
being separated from them forever was painful beyond expression” (Douglass 59). As with the case of
the Baltimore boys, the strongest affections described are the ones that arose independently of
Douglass’s status of a slave. His adult Baltimore friends most likely formed a family to him in the
notion of the saying that ones’ friends are the family one chooses.

After his successful escape, Douglass marries and finally creates a family of his own.
Nevertheless, it is important to mention one last family-like relationship he creates. It is the
bond with Mr. Johnson from New Bedford, to whom Douglass gives “the privilege of choosing [him] a
name” (Douglass 62) and Mr. Johnson suggests the name Douglass. This time, the relationship created
through the act of naming is highly symbolic.

To conclude, there are many different examples in Douglass’s autobiography in which he forms
relationships with others on a family-like level. Several stem from humanly motives of some of his
masters. More are strong friendship bonds with people in the same circumstances, be it common
social status or the fact that they are of a similar age. However, none of these relationships
lasts long as Douglass is repeatedly forced to relocate, always loosing connection with the people
towards whom he has grown affectionate. He gains the ability to freely establish and maintain
relationships only after he becomes a free man.

                                            Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave: Written by
Himself. Antislavery Literature Project, 2005.