My Bondage and My Freedom

Though both Lucretia and Sophia Auld were a part of the slaveholding system, Douglass is more sympathetic in his depiction of these women than he is of their husbands, Thomas and Hugh Auld. What language does Douglass use, particularly in relation to Sophia, to illustrate these women’s kindness? Why do you think that Douglass extends greater sympathy to the wives of these slaveholders?

Contrast Douglass’s description of Aunt Katy with that of Sophia Auld in the context of their roles as surrogate mothers to Douglass.

Douglass frequently addresses how a male slave’s manhood suffers restrictions and, eventually, becomes altogether lost as a consequence of the slave system. He contrasts his condition to that of his former friend, Little Tommy, who distances himself from Douglass when they are young men to reassert the social boundary between them. What examples does Douglass give to illustrate his point about a loss of manhood? How is his sense of manhood regained when he becomes free? How do you interpret his strictly gendered consideration of his condition, and how does it differ from that of the enslaved women whom he mentions in the narrative?