According to Douglass, the journey of Mrs. Auld from a kind and benevolent woman to a cruel slave owner was not an easy one. At first, Mrs. Auld was affectionate towards the young Douglass and cared for him practically as much as she cared for her own son, Tommy. However, after being reprimanded by her husband for educating young Douglass, she began to doubt her own convictions and was forced to accept and justify her husband’s views:
Mrs. Auld was an apt woman, and the advice of her husband, and her own experience, soon demonstrated, to her entire satisfaction, that education and slavery are incompatible with each other.
She not only stopped teaching young Douglass, but also prevented him from reading on his own.
When this conviction was thoroughly established, I was most narrowly watched in all my movements. If I remained in a separate room from the family for any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called upon to give an account of myself.
She tried to suppress her conscience and humanity, but never quite succeeded, because her new outlook, foisted on her by her husband’s beliefs, seemed to have a negative effect on her family, taking away its former peace and serenity:
Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these excellent qualities, and her home of its early happiness… If my condition waxed bad, that of the family waxed not better… She finally became even more violent in her opposition to my learning to read, than was her husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing as well as her husband had commanded her, but seemed resolved to better his instruction.
