"I love you, but hate slavery."

Frederick Douglass had lived with Hugh Auld and his wife Sophia ("Miss Sopha") in Baltimore for most of his childhood and youth (ages 8 to 20), excepting two terrible years in rural Maryland in the custody of his legal owner, Thomas Auld (Hugh's brother). Thomas's grown daughter, Amanda, now "Mrs. Sears" of Philadelphia and an opponent of slavery, had recently re-introduced herself to Douglass. Perhaps stirred by that contact, Douglass revisited the painful gaps in his life story. His letter quietly testifies to the suffering and disorientation that slavery inflicted by stripping away the fundamentals of human identity.

Rochester Oct. 4th 1857

Hugh Auld Esq.

My dear sir:

My heart tells me that you are too noble to treat with indifference the request I am about to make, It is twenty years since I ran away from you, or rather not from you but from -slavery, and since then I have often felt a strong desire to hold a little correspondence with you and to learn something of the position and prospects of your dear children. They were dear to me - and are still - indeed I feel nothing but kindness for you all - I love you, but hate slavery. Now my dear sir, will you favor me by dropping me a line, telling me in what year I came to live with you in Aliceanna St. the year the Frigate was built by Mr. Beacham. The information is not for publication - and shall not be published. We are all hastening where all distinctions are ended, kindness to the humblest will not be unrewarded.

Perhaps you have heard that I have seen Miss Amanda that was, Mrs. Sears that is, and was treated kindly such is the fact, Gladly would I see you and Mrs. Auld or Miss Sopha as I used to call her. 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. A line from you will find me Addressed Fred K Douglass Rochester N. York.

I am dear sir very truly yours,
Fred: Douglass

GLC 7484.06. Frederick Douglass to Hugh Auld, 4 October 1857, 1 p., 31.7 x 9.6 cm.

Editors: James G. Basker, President, Gilder Lehrman Institute; Sandra M. Trenholm, Associate Director, Gilder Lehrman Collection.

Frederick Douglass, Autobiographies: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" / "My Bondage and My Freedom" / "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass", ed. Henry Louis Gates (Library of America, 1996).

David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass's Civil War: Keeping the Faith in Jubilee (Louisiana State University Press, 1989).

William S. McFeely, Frederick Douglass (W.W Norton, 1991).