# Hugh Auld — Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass character guide

> Hugh Auld in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Hugh Auld, Master Hugh, Hugh

**First appearance:** 0007-v

## Snapshot

A Baltimore ship carpenter whose angry warning to his wife accidentally hands Douglass the key to his own liberation.

## Who they are

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 Douglass's syllabus: he realizes precisely what slaveholders fear. Auld's thoughtless cruelty in that moment sets the intellectual arc of the narrative in motion.

## Relationships

### [Edward Covey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/edward_covey)

_professional_

Covey rents Douglass from Hugh Auld to break his spirit through harsh labor and punishment.

## 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 in Baltimore, who forbids his wife from teaching Douglass to read.

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

Brother of Captain Thomas Auld, with whom Douglass goes to live in Baltimore.

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

Forbids his wife from teaching Douglass, arguing that literacy would make him unmanageable and unfit for slavery.

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

Master who forbids Douglass's education, predicting it would make him discontent; his precepts are followed by his wife.

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

Douglass lives with him after returning to Baltimore; his character deteriorates due to brandy and slavery.

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

Previous master in Baltimore; Douglass contrasts the sufficient food there with the starvation at Thomas Auld's.

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

Referenced as the master who would rob Douglass of his earnings.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/narrative_of_the_life_of_frederick_douglass_se/characters/hugh_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