Whenever Douglass is many years five otherwise six, he had been taken to survive Colonel Lloyd’s home plantation, Wye House. Lloyd’s plantation performed such as for instance a little city. More youthful Douglass found themselves among a number of other enslaved college students competing to have as well as most other amenities. Inside 1826 within whenever age seven, he had been delivered to live with Hugh and you will Sophia Auld during the Fells Point, Baltimore. Hugh’s sister Capt. Thomas Auld are the fresh new young man-in-law away from Douglass’s manager, Aaron Anthony. Douglass’s obligation inside Baltimore would be to care for Hugh and you may Sophia’s more youthful child, Thomas. Sophia first started teaching Douglass how exactly to realize, along with her young man. The latest classes finished unexpectedly, however, whenever Hugh discovered what was taking place and you may told Sophia one literacy would “spoil” a servant. According to Douglass, Hugh reported that when the a slave received an inch, he would “just take an ell [an effective device from scale comparable to regarding the 45 ins].” Into the Maryland, as with many other slaveholding claims, it actually was taboo to teach enslaved anyone just how to comprehend and you may write.

Inside March 1832 Douglass is delivered out-of Baltimore so you can St. Michaels, to the Maryland’s East Coast. Immediately following both Aaron Anthony and his awesome daughter Lucretia passed away, their partner, Capt. Thomas Auld, turned into Douglass’s holder. Adolescent Douglass educated harsher living requirements which have Auld, who had been known for his abusive practices.