Question

4. Douglass was approximately eight years old when he went to live with the Auld

family. How does Douglass contrast his childhood on Colonel Lloyd's plantation
with this arrival in Baltimore at the Auld's?

Answer 1

While a child on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, Douglass wasn’t subjected to much hard labor, and only had to perform a few chores. He also managed to befriend the master’s young son, Daniel, whose affection for Douglass gave the slave some small benefits. However, Douglass still suffered greatly from hunger and cold. The slave children are fed cornmeal mush from a shared trough, and only the strongest manage to eat their fill; Douglass’s linen shirt does nothing to protect him from the cold. His saving grace is a small bag used for carrying cornmeal, which he steals from the mill. He sleeps on the floor with his head and upper body in the bag; the frost causes his exposed feet to develop large fissures.

Douglass’s friendship with the master’s son affirms that slaves and free whites can interact on an equal footing. That such interactions happen between children shows how slavery is not intrinsic, as white slave owners would suggest, but rather something learned and enforced by an unjust society. In addition, this glimpse of equality between children only exaggerates the outrageous inadequacy of the living conditions Douglass endures.

Themes

The Self-Destructive Hypocrisy of Christian Slaveholders Theme Icon

At age seven or eight, Douglass is sent away from the Lloyd plantation in order to live in Baltimore with Mr. Hugh Auld, the brother of Captain Thomas Auld. Douglass leaves joyfully, and eagerly cleans himself up in order to receive a pair of trousers. Douglass is immensely excited to see the big city, and for several reasons feels no sadness about leaving the plantation. He feels no attachment to the Great House Farm as a home, in the way that many children might feel towards their childhood homes. Moreover, Douglass is confident that everything he finds in Baltimore will be better than what he leaves behind at the Great House Farm; his cousin, Tom, has stoked his enthusiasm by telling him at length of the city’s majesty.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

He believes that his stay in Colonel Lloyd's plantation would have made him remain a slave, but in Baltimore he believes he would not remain a slave and for him moving down there is a gift from God.

Step-by-step explanation:

Douglass considers his move to Baltimore as a blessing in disguise . If he had not been taken away from Colonel Lloyd’s plantation at that time, Douglass he had the believe that, he would still be remain a slave, rather than a man writing his autobiography. while sitting freely in his house.

Douglass perceived that he may seem as self‑centered or superstitious to suppose that providence had a hand in his delivery to Baltimore, but the feeling is still strong and true.

From is first memory, Douglass remembers sensing that he would not be a slave for long. this sense gives him belief in hard times, and he thinks of it as a gift from God.