In Frederick Douglass why is Mr Austin Gore a first-rate overseer What is ironic about his name?

Answer 1

I think the best way to understand something, is to see what it is not. Mr. Hopkins was succeeded by Mr. Gore. Douglass tells us Mr. Hopkins career was very brief; due in part, because he "lacked the necessary severity to suit Colonel Lloyd." Therefore, severity is the key element of a first-rate overseer. And Mr. Gore was a first-rate overseer, because even his presence alone "produced Horror and trembling in their [slaves] ranks." Douglass paints him as a savage and a murderer; a cruel man. The slaves belonged, here, to Colonel Lloyd, and Mr. Gore was employed by the Colonel. Douglass describes the Colonel's wealth as that of Job, and owned a thousand slaves. And the whole family "enjoyed the luxury of whipping" the slaves as they pleased. The Colonel made the slave he was whipping bow his head as he received the lashes. Douglass tells us a story of the Colonel meeting one of his slaves one day while he was riding along the road; the slave does not know the colonel his master. In a series of questions, the slave replies with the truth:

"Well, does the colonel treat you well?" the colonel asks the slave, and the slave tells him, "No, sir." For this, the slave is uprooted from his family and friends and sold.

The irony of a person's name is what the reader makes of it. No name, however, can fully match barbarians such as Colonel Lloyd and Mr. Gore. The true irony, here, their ideology of inflicting fear as motivation to work harder at any cost, prevails today.