# Captain Thomas Auld — Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass character guide

> Captain Thomas Auld in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Captain Thomas Auld, Captain Auld, Thomas, Master Thomas Auld, Master Thomas

**First appearance:** 0003-i

## Snapshot

A slaveholder who never learned to command, Thomas Auld finds religion and uses it to sanctify cruelty rather than renounce it.

## Who they are

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 emancipation, but instead Auld becomes harsher, praying morning and night while starving his slaves and stuffing visiting preachers. He embodies the book's charge that American Christianity can be twisted into a shield for slavery.

## Relationships

### [Cousin Tom](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/cousin_tom)

_family_

Captain Thomas Auld is Cousin Tom's master and relative, treating him with the same cruelty as other slaves.

### [William Gardner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/william_gardner)

_professional_

Captain Thomas Auld hires out Douglass to William Gardner, a shipbuilder, where Douglass learns caulking.

### [Lucretia Auld](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/lucretia_auld)

_family_

Lucretia Auld is Captain Thomas Auld's wife, who shows some kindness to Douglass but remains complicit in slavery.

## In the story

### [Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/chapters/narrative-of-the-life-of-frederick-douglass)

Douglass's master, who sends him to Covey and later to St. Michael's.

### [Chapter I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/chapters/i)

Referred to as 'Captain Anthony' in the text; Douglass's first master who cruelly whips Aunt Hester.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/chapters/ii)

Son-in-law of Colonel Lloyd and master of the sloop Sally Lloyd; part of the master's family.

### [Chapter IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/chapters/iv)

Referred to as 'my old master'; present when Mr. Gore was questioned about Demby's murder.

### [Chapter VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/chapters/viii)

Marries Rowena Hamilton and takes Douglass from Master Hugh to live with him in St. Michael's.

### [Chapter IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/chapters/ix)

Douglass's new master in St. Michael's; mean, cruel, and hypocritical; his religious conversion made him more brutal.

### [Chapter XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/chapters/xi)

Mentioned as the master to whom Douglass paid his weekly wages.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/captain_thomas_auld
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters