born in tuckahoe, no idea of his age like most other slaves masters like slaves to stay ignorant father was white, may have been his master, didn't know mothers are separated from children at an early age to destroy affection between them mother died when 7, he heard about it long after, indifferent many masters also fathers of their slaves, such slaves often have a harder time easier to sell children than to whip them or watch white sons whip them masters use the curse of ham from the bible to justify racism and slavery, becoming invalidated by white fathers overseer of the farm was a horrible person, very cruel to those being punished his aunt hester was whipped the fuck out of in the kitchen for disobeying orders, he saw some of it, hid in the closet until it was over one farm was the center of government for all the others, where the slaves got their monthly rations and yearly clothing, nothing was given other than this those too young to labor were given less most don't have much time for sleep, so beds don't matter so much very horrible and cruel "Mr. Severe" replaced by Mr. Hopkins, was thought by slaves to be the work of god Hopkins was much better and didn't take pleasure in the beatings it was a great honor to be chosen to run errands at the Colonel Lloyd's home plantation "The great house farm" slaves sung songs of great sorrow and hope of deliverance from slavery on their journeys to the great house farm ch3 lloyd had an awesome garden that was famous and had tons of fruit he whipped any slave caught stealing from it also had nice stables/horses and riding equipment lloyd was way too damn picky about his horses and nothing was ever perfect he was very rich, to be compared to Job (bible reference, no idea) bad words about the master are dealt with harshly so ingrained that they quarrelled with the slaves of others about whose master was best ch4 hopkins replaced by Austin Gore most dreaded by slaves, harsh, quick to punish on any accusation was a man of firmness and his word, inflexible killing a slave was not a crime, because why would one destroy his own property if it were not absolutely necessary? ch5 made friends with lloyd's son daniel daniel preferred him and protected him he often suffered from hunger and cold feet were frostbitten was very happy when he learned about his being sold to a son in law of lloyd was given trousers after he got clean and scraped off all the dead skin moved to baltimore wowed by annapolis and how it was much greater than the great house farm met his new masters and was given care of their son was surprised by how friendly they seemed marks his move to baltimore as the beginning of his ease of life and gain of favor thanks god for this change in life ch6 he was his current mistress' first slave she made him feel like a person the power he gave her changed her she started teaching him to spell and read they were forced to stop by her husband he took this to mean that knowledge was the path to freedom city slaves are almost free compared to plantation slaves in food, clothes, and priveleges few in the city willing to be labelled as a cruel master one exception was the mistress of the two slaves across the street (henrietta and mary) ch7 lived in baltimore for 7 years, learned to read/write his mistress treated him as human, which was a mistake for slaveholders she began to change and become mean got boys to help him learn to read was now 12 and realizing that being a slave for life was a long time got a book called "the colombian orator" that gave him arguments against slavery Sheridan's speeches on catholic emancipation were particularly interesting learned to loathe slaveholders felt for a while that thinking was a horrible thing to be able to do his own tormented him continually sometimes thought that he might kill himself rather than be a slave heard the word abolition in connection with interesting things soon learned the meaning from newspapers was suggested to run away to the north by two irishmen at the wharf that he helped resolved to run away at some point started learning to write by copying letters he saw in the shipyard and learning what they meant learned more by challenging boys to writing contests used masters' child thomas' writing books to learn how to write better ch8 old master captain anthony died w/o leaving a will he was sent for to be valued for division of assets between two children they all dreaded being owned by his son andrew he was given to lucretia, the daughter sent back home to baltimore both died rather soon new owners made his grandmother live a shack and support herself, essentially left her to die master remarried was taken away from current residence to live with owner in st michael's his most painful thought was leaving the boys and their lessons determined that the time to run away was near at hand ch9 can now give dates since he can read went to live in st michael's in march 1832 thomas auld and wife were mean and cruel not given enough to eat, so beg and stole for more food owners pretended not to have food also cowardly, no firmness in commands was not consistent in any way shape or form thomas became a religious man, had no real effect became a religious leader, had preachers over for dinner occasionally started quoting scripture to justify cruelty he said city life had ruined douglass was sent to be broken by a small farmer ch10