To His Former Master - American History, 1493-1945

Frederick Douglass to Hugh Auld

4 October 1857

View the letter from Frederick Douglass to his former master Hugh Auld in the resource

Almost twenty years after his escape from slavery, Frederick Douglass wrote this extraordinarily powerful letter to the man who once owned him, Hugh Auld. It is a letter that reveals something of the complex relationship between master and enslaved, the disorienting nature of slave life and above all, the human capacity for overcoming bitterness and pain.

Born into slavery in Maryland in 1818, Douglass believed that one of his former masters, Aaron Anthony, was his father. As was the custom in Maryland, he was separated from his mother at a young age and lived with his grandmother until he was seven. When Douglass was 12 Sophia Auld, the wife of his owner, began to teach him how to read and write. Such education was illegal under Maryland law and the lessons ceased after being discovered by his master. Douglass went on to educate himself covertly and later taught fellow enslaved people how to read and write.

After being sent to work for Edward Covey, a man known as the “slave breaker”, he made several attempts to escape to the north. He finally succeeded in 1838 with the help of his future wife Ann Murray – a free African American who was also member of the Underground Railroad. Douglass went on to join the movement for abolition and quickly gained attention as an eloquent writer and orator. His best known work is his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845).

Douglass lived and toured throughout Ireland and Britain from 1845 to 1847. His popularity was so high that the Richardsons, a Quaker family from Newcastle in England, raised funds to buy back his freedom. The deal was concluded on 6th October, with Douglass’s legal owner, Thomas Auld, accepting the payment of £150.

Douglass was a celebrity during his lifetime, and one of the most influential abolitionists of the nineteenth century. Yet this letter is a painful nod to his origins. It appears from the content that he is trying to find out more about his childhood and those with whom he grew up. Moreover, this letter is extraordinary for its insight into the relationship between a slave and his master and also for its sentiment of forgiveness. “It is twenty years since I ran away from you, or rather not from you but from Slavery … indeed I feel nothing but kindness for you all – I love you, but hate Slavery.” Douglass asks after Auld’s children before asking him to write to him with more information on his origins. He finishes with these poignant lines: “I could have lived with you during life in freedom though I ran away from you so unceremoniously. I did not know how soon I might be sold. But I hate to talk about that.”