In America in the 1800’s slaves were not allowed to be educated and were broken so that they wouldn’t have hope to escape to the north. Slaves were separated from their mothers at birth and would be taken to another plantation to be put into slavery. They would also be sent to cruel masters who would break them and make them hopeless and more compliant. But Douglass was different; his intelligence, observation, and motivation defined and impacted him. Douglass’s experiences and attributes allowed for him to escape from slavery. Douglass was very intelligent and was able to teach himself how to read and write by putting himself into situations where he could learn. As Douglass recalls in chapter 7, “This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry
Fredrick Douglass establishes his credibility early on in this except. He portrays himself as an individual that is both dedicated to his pursuit of knowledge and a reliable source as a witness. He shows his consistency of nature and the way he continually pursued an education while facing extreme odds. He is fair in the way he judges the slaveholders, expressing both their negative sides and showing that he can see the positives as well.
Frederick Douglass was a slave who escaped to freedom 1838, but many other slaves weren’t as lucky as he was. Many slaves used the same method Douglass used, forging passes, and they made their way to free states with any personal items they had, like clothing and jewelry. People would then remain free by avoiding authorities at all costs, and using aliases and fake names to avoid identification to be sold back into slavery again. There were various strategies of escaping that people used, such as forging passes and acting as ‘sailors’ as Frederick Douglass did. Others used more primitive methods, such as simply running from the authorities.
People had very distinct thoughts about slaves, of these people were Thomas Jefferson, John C. Calhoun, and James Hammond. They believed that slaves were unable to be educated, not compassionate, and not able to think ahead. However, Frederick Douglass is a counter to all of these. He was first taught to read and write, once he was unable to be taught by someone else he taught himself. He cared very much for his fellow slaves, taught them to read and he included them in his plant to run away from Mr. Freeland.
Once Mr. Auld finds that Mrs. Auld is teaching Douglass to read, Mrs. Auld is told that it is “unsafe” when a “slave [learns] to read” (Douglass 20). This experience shows Douglass that if he continues to become more educated, he will be treated more and more inhumanely because owners will think he is a “threat” to them. Even though being a “threat” merely means losing money at most, it is enough for slave owners to choose not to educate their slaves. While Douglass felt evocative of this experience, he realized that the experience showed him “the pathway from slavery” (Douglass 20). From that moment on, Douglass knew that at some point in his life, he would be a free man, no matter what it took.
Life began for Frederick Douglass as a slave without any indication of what the future would hold. A fortunate event occurred of Douglass; he learned to read as well as glimpse the abolitionist movement in Baltimore. Douglass quickly realized the institution of slavery and proper education cannot exist together. After being sold to a “slave breaker”, a drive for freedom and education was born. Frederick kept educating himself after his escape and joined the abolitionist movement.
Douglass was so determined to become literate that he learned in so many unorthodox ways that it made him a better thinker, reader, and writer. As a child Douglass got his hands on The Columbian Orator, which instilled an influx of ideas in his mind. Although with the spark the Columbian Orator arisen, Douglass wasn’t able to do much with it because he was unable to create a coherent answer or response to the questions and ideas he had. With the arrival of these thoughts also brought along heartache. He was a prisoner to his own mind, when he learned to read he got a rude awakening by being aware of his situation as a slave.
The mid- to late-nineteenth century was a dark time for slaves in the United States of America. There was a constant struggle for power and social standing in the South, and slaves, were caught in the middle. In order for Frederick Douglass to free himself from the educational and spiritual darkness of slavery, it was essential for him to learn to read and write. Throughout his childhood Douglass was passionate about his need for education.
Frederick Douglass the man, the steamroller, the one who paved the way for African Americans. Douglas was an escaped slave. He paved the way for many people. The African American society would not be where we are today without the works and the upstanding against the civil rights. Self-teaching and strong will, and his faith in religion allowed Frederick Douglas the strength and will power to never give up.
Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of
The concept of slavery is an idea that’s nearly universally shunned and considered barbaric in the eyes of modern society. However, as we all have learned in school, slavery was once considered one of the foundations of society in America. Rounded up and used like cattle, these people were forced from their home country, forced to do backbreaking work, and forced to dedicate their lives to their owners for profit. Yet, despite the haze of darkness and despair that enveloped the lives of American slaves, bits of light shine through, showing what life really was like for a slave. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is one such bright source of light, giving a unique glimpse of daily life in slavery.
“As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing” (Douglass 45). Frederick Douglass learned, against all odds, to read, and became literate; he spent his time absorbing all the knowledge that he could. However, as Douglass states, and as I do partially concur, that the ability of learning is at times a curse rather than a blessing for more reasons than one, but at the same time I do not believe that this is always the case. “It has given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy.
Furthermore, Education opened Douglass’s eyes to the reality of his injustice as a slave; thus, compelling him to action as he recalls, “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. ”(Douglass, 2014, p.133) Education caused Douglass heartache. While attaining his education benefited Douglass, he could not relate to his fellow slaves. The fellow slaves had the ability to remain content with their current state of being since it was all they had ever known. Douglass knew otherwise and longed for the forbidden life as a free man, as it changed from an unattainable idea into an achievable
When Douglass had to run an errand he always to his book with him along with a piece of bread. Due to the white kids that were helping him being poor and hungry he exchanged bread for lesson on how to read and write. Learning allowed him to used these new skills towards helping his people after discovering the word
Because of this, he successfully creates a contrast between what the slave owners think of and treat the slaves and how they are. Douglass says that slave’s minds were “starved by their cruel masters”(Douglass, 48) and that “they had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass, 48) and through education, something that they were deprived of, Frederick Douglass is able to open their minds and allow them to flourish into the complex people that they are. By showing a willingness to learn to read and write, the slaves prove that they were much more than what was forced upon them by their masters.
Douglass’ master stopped teaching him how to read and became cold-hearted. “Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of the tiger-like fierceness”(Douglass 37). Douglass had eventually taught himself how to read and one day while reading “The Columbian Orator” He found out the truth about why he was a slave. “...a band of successful robbers, who left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery”(Douglass 40).