Chapter 6 Of Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

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This passage has been taken from chapter six of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." Here Douglass goes into detail about when his new mistress, Mrs. Auld, starts teaching him to read a few alphabet letters. Mr. Auld caught and stopped her from teaching Douglass. For the first time, young Douglass realized the whites’ policies that prevented blacks from becoming literate, and obtaining a proper education. Mr. Auld told his wife education ruins a slave. After hearing their words, Douglass began to see the life of an illiterate black slave only increased the future amount of slaves. Slaveholders used it as a weapon to rob black men of their knowledge. Ultimately, whites remained in power while controlling the lives of blacks through the destruction of their homes and families.
Mr. Auld believed that teaching a slave was not only a bad idea, but also against the law. Douglass said, “Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world.” At this point, Douglass mentioned that he had a completely new realization, a new thought that black men are slaves because of their lack of knowledge. Douglass understands the main function that literacy plays in a white-dominated society during that time. Teaching a few things to a young slave will make him "unmanageable" and "unfit" to perform his job as a slave. Education will raise a slave’s self-conscious mind and help him to understand the value of a free life. Douglass thought without education the slave would never learn what he should have, and what he is missing. He was in a dark place where the rest of the slaves knew nothing about a free life. He believed only education could give them their desired life. If he learned to read, then he wouldn't have to be a slave anymore. T...

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...fe by building a strong self-consciousness. This passage is extremely important in terms of the theme of the book. Before, Douglass never had a sense of it because he thought of himself as only a slave because he was meant to be. The slaveholders demanded great gratitude and passive manners from their slave. They liked to see the slaves as passive receivers that should always remain thankful to their masters. The whites’ wealth and power caused slaves to feel themselves lower than the whites. The illiteracy of black men established their dependence on whites. The whites used literacy to dominate blacks, and the narrative allows the reader to realize the fact that slaves could live more independently and freely by educating themselves. A man's life would be in his own control if he learns to read and write. Eventually, literacy helps him to free himself from slavery.

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