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“If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master¬- to do as he is told to do.” This quote is saying that if you teach a slave a little information then they would go beyond to learn more and educate themselves. An ell represents 45 inches in measurement; therefore, going from an inch to forty-five inches means that you’ll expand on what you are given. A slave that is educated would no longer be worthy to a slave master because the slave would rebel against the master commands and teach other slaves. The slave master wants the slaves to be scared and not educated so that they would not feel insecure about themselves. However, they also fear slaves which are the reasons they do not want them to be educated. Being educated can stop any enemy and obstacle that comes directly your way. I agree with the statement, “If you give nigger an inch, he will take an …show more content…
Douglass’s mistress only taught him three letters within the alphabet. Only learning three letters from alphabet and teaching yourself the rest, is really insane. If I was only taught three letters then it would've been extremely hard me to learn it all by myself. It takes patience and other skills to achieve this go. I believe Fredrick Douglass is an influential man due to his circumstance. He took a negative statement about slaves and used it as energy boaster to push him to succeed. Douglass put his life in jeopardy because he was teaching himself how to read and write. Usually when slaves try to educate themselves, they get punish from the slave master. They either get wiped or a finger chopped off. He wanted to prove that he will educate himself and become somebody. If I was only taught three letters it would've been extremely hard me to learn it all by myself. Fredrick Douglas mistress gave him a small foundation which led to him building a pathway to
In the “Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas” Frederick Douglas discuss his life of being born a slave to him escaping to the North for freedom. Since slavery wasn’t abolished until 1865 in the U.S. and Douglas didn’t publish his book until 1845, he wanted to show people the truth behind slavery and hopefully people would understand that slavery is not something that needs to be around no longer. Although, Douglas explains his life story and he also points out a few harsh moments other slaves have to go through as well. Therefore, the overall argument is slavery being abolish and how Douglas plans his escape.
While knowledge can open many doors for success, it can also put a lock on various ones for people who don’t have an opportunity to practice it. This is portrayed in an essay by Frederick Douglass named Learning to Read and Write. It portrays the hardships he faced and the toll it took on him. Frederick Douglass was a slave who was born in Talbot County Maryland and then became a server for a family in Baltimore. He also became an active participant in the abolitionist movement in 1838. Michael Scot’s response toward Frederick Douglass was that gaining knowledge was more of a dissatisfaction rather than a worthy accomplishment for the reason that education made him realize he had no other option to his condition. For Frederick Douglass, learning
Literacy plays an important part in helping Douglass achieve his freedom. Learning to read and write enlightened his mind to the injustice of slavery; it kindled in his heart longings for liberty. Douglass’s skills proved instrumental in his attempts to escape and afterwards in his mission as a spokesman against slavery. Douglass was motivated to learn how to read by hearing his master condemn the education of slaves. Mr. Auld declared that education would “spoil” him and “forever unfit him to be a slave” (2054).
Many people take for grant of the freedom we have, but Douglass shows that having freedom means having the ability to control one’s own destiny. Douglass was a slave who like any other slaves cannot be educated. Douglass finds this out by accident when he overhears the reasons why it was illegal for them to get education- it because the white slave owners did not want slaves to gain knowledge as it will bring disorder and rebel against slavery. As a result of this finding, Douglass seeks out his own education. One of his methods of learning how to read is by exchanging foods for learning to read. During the slavery, poverty also affected all different people, so Douglass would give breads to poor children and for exchange teach Douglass some words. For Douglass learning meant punishments or even death, but he takes the risk and did all he can to gain knowledge because this is the only way he can be free. He demonstrates to people that education is powerful and the way one can truly be self-governed. Douglass story is a reminder to always appreciate education and to take the most out of learning because in the end no one can take away what’s in our
The Life of Fredrick Douglass Response Paper Fredrick Douglass once said that “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” Douglass grew up as a slave and when he was 20 years old he took the riskiest journey of his life to escape from slavery. The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass has a lot of points to reflect on; however, here are couples I’ve found important. His autobiography gave a glimpse into the horrors of slavery. The author shares his experiences of seeing his aunt being beaten and not knowing anything even their own birthdates.
Throughout his autobiography Frederick Douglass talks of the many ways a slave and master would be corrupted by the labor system that was so deeply entrenched in the south as a result of demand for cotton, and other labor-intensive crops. The master justified his actions through a self-serving religion and a belief that slaves were meant to be in their place. Masters were usually very cruel and self centered. Most had never been in the fields with the slaves. They didn’t understand the conditions that they were putting the slaves under. Being a slaveholder could make you inhuman and change your whole person. Frederick Douglass took a stand against it in his own way, he was self-reliant and believed what was happening. He stuck to himself and was always thinking about things. He never let things just pass him by, he took advantage of all of his opportunities. Being self-reliant especially in his time, is one of the greatest traits that someone can possess.
In the passage of the Narrative of Fredrick Douglass, the author masterfully conveys two complimentary tones of liberation and fear. The tones transition by the use of diction and detail. The passage is written entirely in first person, since we are witnessing the struggles of Fredrick Douglass through his eyes. Through his diction, we are able to feel the triumph that comes with freedom along with the hardships. Similarly, detail brings a picturesque view of his adversities. Since the point of view is first person, the reader is able to be a part of the Douglass’ struggles with his new freedom. With diction, detail, and point of view, the reader is able to get a rare glimpse into the past of Fredrick Douglass.Fredrick Douglass’ diction is powerful as he describes his life as a slave and with his new freedom. Fredrick Douglass calls being enslaved an act of “wretchedness,” yet he was able to remain “firm” and eventually left the “chains” of slavery. Fredrick Douglass expresses that being enslaved is a wretched act and that no man should ever deserve such treatment. Despite being a slave, he kept strong and eventually broke the chain of society. However, Fredrick Douglass experienced great “insecurity” and “loneliness” with his new freedom, and was upon a new “hunting-ground.” His new freedom brought other devastating factors, being a new state without any friends, which caused his loneliness. In this new state, he grew insecure for he was in a new danger zone where at any time his freedom could be rejected. With new freedom come new obstacles, which are described in the diction of Fredrick Douglass.
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey (also known as the famous Frederick Douglass) was an intelligent African American slave in the 1800’s. Even though slavery was quite common during this time, Frederick stood out like a diamond in a pile of rocks. Unlike other slaves, he taught himself how to read and write on his free time, despite the fact that he could be severely punished. Most slaves thought this harsh labor was inhumane and cruel, yet did nothing about it. However Douglass took it as a life lesson and used it to fight for his freedom. After being held as a slave, Frederick’s world turned upside down. Slavery led him to become an passionate abolitionist, successful writer and an independent human being. Frederick Douglass’s abnormal life pushed him to educate himself and it also influenced his writing during this time period. This will be proved by examples from scholarly articles and the novel Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass.
In this final research analysis, I will be doing a comparison between the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” and the “Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” to show how both Douglass and Rowlandson use a great deal of person strength and faith in God to endure their life and ultimately gain their freedom.
He had long fought to learn to read and was so excited and eager to do so, he never expected the circumstances of this to be as dehumanizing as they were. He regretted learning to read because it brought him nothing but desperation, he learned his awful truth and that of his fellow slaves. "It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy." (Douglass, 24) The truth was that the more he learned the more he became aggravated, he knew there was not much he could do. It brought his moral down along with many other feelings, even a slave like Frederick had learned the awful feeling of
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiography written by Frederick Douglass and published in 1845. Frederick Douglass, a former slave and passionate abolitionist, provides descriptive stories of his life as a slave, all the way from his childhood to his escape. Chapter four specifically focuses on the unjustness of slavery, and Douglass’ central claim that there is no justice system in the slave world. In chapter four, Douglass describes the brutal murder of Demby and recounts multiple killings of slaves by overseers to support his central claim that slaves receive no justice, safety or security.
Frederick Douglas was born into the slave trade in Talbot County, Maryland. He was sent to work on a plantation for the Hugh’s Family for about seven years. This is the location where his learning truly began. His mistress was a “kind, tender-hearted, woman” who treated Frederick as a human instead of property the family owned. This was a dangerous thing for both parties at this time in history it was considered wrong. Frederick States “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me” which I see the connection he had made to her change of personality because of slavery. She had heavenly qualities that slavery was able to divest from her. It was injurious to Fredrick not only for the lashings a salve would receive but to have his former teacher stopped teaching him. Beginning to follow her husband’s teaching who forbid her to teach the slaves she became violent. Douglas says “nothing made her more angry than to see me with a newspapers” and that resulted in her rushing Frederick with a face of fury taking the paper away. His former mistress who gave him his first lesson expressed her new found apprehension to education and slavery co-existing. His mistress gave him an inch by teaching Douglas the alphabet now he was about to take the mile. He began to make friends with the white boys he would meet in the streets while running errands in town. Frederick always took a book and bread when he left for town. The boys who were willing to teach him would be paid in bread which he was allowed to have plenty of. The white boys who were teaching him where considerable poor in comparison to the family that referred to Frederick “chattel”. Young Frederick spoke powerful words to two his teachers who lived on Phil...
There are a number of key arguments in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. A few of which include inequality, education, and Christianity as the keys to freedom in terms of its true values within the institution of slavery. While Frederick Douglass made some key arguments, he also made common ground to make his appeal for the abolition of slavery.
The overall tone of Chapter 6, in the book The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, is insentient. Insentient means incapable of feeling or inanimate. He simply is spiritless when he writes this chapter. At the end of chapter 6 Douglass wrote about how a slave named Mary was whipped so often she would bleed. “I have seen Mary contending with the pigs for the offal thrown into the street. So much was Mary kicked and cut to pieces, that she was oftener called “pecked” than by her name”(Douglass page 31). The way he wrote it was as if he didn’t flinch at the awful details of her being whipped. A less disturbing part of his life that he wrote about was when Mrs. Auld got in trouble for teaching him his A, B, C’s. Mr. Auld said it was unlawful and unsafe to teach a slave. Mr. Auld also used mean names to refer to Douglass. Even when Douglass heard them, then realized the white man's power to enslave black man after he didn’t seem very hurt. He took it to heart but didn’t act out. I think Douglass was very controlled which made him seem unattached
In the excerpt from Fredrick Douglass, “What a Black man wants” We see a very motivated, Educated, Comedic, and humble black man speaking out against the discriminatory laws against all black men. While reading the excerpt, we find that a General Banks has instituted a new policy which brings Mr. Douglass to argue said policy. Does this make Douglass a radical for his time? Throughout his presentation, he speaks on many things such as the comparisons between The Nation and the Anglo Saxons, and the state of black citizens in time of war and peace.