# Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass — Character guide

> Key figures in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass.

- [Frederick Douglass](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/frederick_douglass.md): Douglass begins as a child shuttled between plantations and Baltimore households, already asking the questions slavery forbids. His hunger to read—and his discovery that literacy is the road out of bondage—sets him again
- [Edward Covey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/edward_covey.md): Covey rents Douglass out from Thomas Auld and grinds him through six months of ceaseless field labor in every weather, earning his nickname by breaking bodies and spirits alike. Douglass describes being reduced to a brut
- [Captain Thomas Auld](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/captain_thomas_auld.md): Douglass's master in St. Michael's, Auld is awkward and fretful, unable to make his slaves call him master and humiliated by their quiet defiance. His Methodist conversion raises Douglass's hopes of kindness or emancipat
- [Hugh Auld](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/hugh_auld.md): Hugh Auld owns Douglass in Baltimore and initially allows his wife Sophia to teach the boy letters, until he forbids it with a furious speech about how literacy unfits a slave for bondage. That prohibition becomes Dougla
- [Austin Gore](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/austin_gore.md): Gore oversees Colonel Lloyd's plantation and kills the slave Demby for refusing to come out of a creek, then defends the murder as necessary to prevent insurrection. No court touches him; the community esteems him. His u
- [Colonel Edward Lloyd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/colonel_lloyd.md): Colonel Edward Lloyd presides over the Great House Farm with a thousand enslaved people and a household of sons and sons-in-law who whip servants for sport. When a slave honestly answers Lloyd's roadside questions about 
- [Aunt Hester](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/aunt_hester.md): Douglass's aunt, whose late-night whipping by Captain Anthony becomes the first scene of terror he cannot forget or forgive.
- [Henry Bailey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/henry_bailey.md): A fellow bondsman and friend whose courage and companionship steady Douglass during the Sabbath school and the darker days at Covey's.
- [William Freeland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/william_freeland.md): A master whose relative decency lets Douglass teach other slaves to read, and whose trust becomes the ground for a dangerous hope.
- [Sandy Jenkins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/sandy_jenkins.md): A slave and conjurer who hands Douglass a protective root before his confrontation with Covey, blending folk belief with survival.
- [Demby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/demby.md): A slave shot and killed by overseer Austin Gore for refusing to come out of a creek.
- [Lucretia Auld](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/lucretia_auld.md): Captain Thomas Auld's first wife who shows some kindness to Douglass as a child.
- [Sophia Auld](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/sophia_auld.md): Hugh Auld's wife who initially teaches Douglass the alphabet but is forced to stop.
- [Nathan Johnson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/nathan_johnson.md): A free black man who welcomes Douglass in New Bedford and helps him find work.
- [William Hamilton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/william_hamilton.md): A master who hires Douglass and treats him relatively well.
- [Thomas Hamilton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/thomas_hamilton.md): A master who hires Douglass and is involved in the slave trade.
- [Mr. Severe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/mr_severe.md): A cruel overseer on Colonel Lloyd's plantation who whips slaves frequently.
- [Mr. Hopkins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/mr_hopkins.md): An overseer on Colonel Lloyd's plantation who is less cruel than Mr. Severe.
- [William Gardner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/william_gardner.md): A master who hires Douglass and is known for his harshness.
- [Barney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/barney.md): An elderly slave on Colonel Lloyd's plantation.
- [Wendell Phillips](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/wendell_phillips.md): Abolitionist who wrote a letter prefacing Douglass's narrative.
- [Daniel Lloyd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/daniel_lloyd.md): Colonel Lloyd's son who befriends Douglass as a child.
- [Cousin Tom](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/cousin_tom.md): A young relative of the Auld family.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters