Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

Auld is a slave owner who inherits Douglass from the estate of his deceased wife, Lucretia. During his early years, Douglass views Auld as weak-willed and hypocritical. Although the slave owner finds religion, he never considers freeing his enslaved people because of it. Paradoxically, Auld is responsible for a life-changing opportunity that eventually leads to Douglass’s freedom. Rather than selling the young man to a Deep South plantation after an abortive escape attempt, Auld offers to free Douglass when he reaches the age of 25.

After his escape, Douglass spends years attacking Auld in print as the quintessential abusive slave master. However, the two men reconcile when Auld is near death. The old man tells Douglass he was always too smart to be an enslaved person, which Douglass views as validation. There is some speculation among historians that Auld is Douglass’s biological father. 

Anna is Douglass’s wife of more than four decades. During that time, she keeps the home fires burning and the children fed while her famous husband is out making speeches. Anna is a shadowy figure in Douglass’s story because he hardly ever mentions her in his writing. She is illiterate and is framed here as showing less interest in the life of the mind than some of Douglass’s other female companions.

Anna is an able manager of domestic affairs and supports her husband in his life’s work. Surprisingly, she tolerates houseguests who may be romantically involved with him. Her own views about Douglass and these women must remain forever a mystery because so little documentation remains about her life. When she dies of a stroke in her 60s, her husband is inconsolable at the loss of the woman who provided a solid foundation for his life. 

Garrison represents a constructive father figure for Douglass. As the publisher of the country’s most prominent abolitionist newspaper, he wields significant influence and takes Douglass under his wing to launch the former enslaved person’s career as a public speaker. Unlike Douglass, Garrison is a political idealist and a moral absolutist. He demands the immediate emancipation of enslaved people and votes for women. He sees the Constitution as a corrupt document and advises complete withdrawal from politics as a means of effecting change. He also condemns churches for their collusion in perpetuating slavery. Because Garrison preaches pacifism and political disengagement, he eventually parts ways with Douglass philosophically. For years, his faction wages a smear campaign against his former protégé. 

Ottilie is an attractive, freethinking German journalist who becomes infatuated with Douglass when she first reads his biography. For more than two decades, she is a frequent guest at Douglass’s home and an active correspondent. Many biographers have speculated that she and Douglass were lovers. In letters to her sister, she frequently implies that Douglass would marry her if he were single. Her letters indicate her attachment to him and her contempt for his wife. When Ottilie develops breast cancer, she chooses to drink a vial of cyanide rather than face a lingering death. Because she orders all her correspondence with Douglass to be destroyed after her suicide, it is difficult to gauge the level of Douglass’s reciprocal attachment to her.