Chapter 9 - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Bad as all slaveholders are, we seldom meet one destitute of every element
of character commanding respect. My master was one of this rare sort. I do
not know of one single noble act ever performed by him. The leading trait
in his character was meanness; and if there were any other element in his
nature, it was made subject to this. He was mean; and, like most other mean
men, he lacked the ability to conceal his meanness. Captain Auld was not
born a slaveholder. He had been a poor man, master only of a Bay craft. He
came into possession of all his slaves by marriage; and of all men,