Frederick Douglass was a magnificent and clever learner. Learning is as much a skill as the things it is used to acquire, and Douglass was very skillful. As a boy Douglass was abused and punished for his scholarly interests, but he never lost his passion and drive to gain more knowledge. He engaged in clever tricks, games, and habits to increase his literacy. Douglass says at the beginning of his life his knowledge was a curse, and it seemed so, but I think that into his teens he realized what a powerful ally it could be. Then in his later life it became his strongest ally. Douglass’s opinion of knowledge changed from negative to positive due to his change in position. In Douglass’ early life he was obviously a slave. He was born a …show more content…
slave to an experienced master. His master soon died, and half of his property went to his daughter, Lucretia Auld. She also died shortly after obtaining Douglass. At this point Thomas Auld, having no need for a child slave, leant him to his brother Hugh Auld. Hugh Auld’s wife, Sophia, was the first to begin to teach Douglass to read. Being a first time slave owner Sophia does not realize the severity of her actions. This is where Douglass’s knowledge troubles truly begin. As Mr. Auld says if Douglass learned to read “It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” (48). Hugh unknowingly captured the struggle that Douglass calls a curse.
Once Douglass learns to read, and gets his first book, “The Columbian Orator” he is immediately exposed to arguments against the suffering he is experiencing. Among the speeches in “The Columbian Orator” there is a dialogue between a slave and his master in which the slave convinces the master to grant him freedom. Douglass is like Adam and Eve after then ate the apple. He is enlightened, and he can never go back. Not only is he isolated from his brothers because of his intelligence, but he is also guilty of a serious crime. It is no wonder that Douglass views his knowledge as a curse, it has so far caused him nothing but pain, and isolation. Ignorance is bliss. In Douglass’s early teens he was no longer under the direct control of the Aulds. He was sent to a slave breaker named Covey. Under Covey’s cruel whip it was expected that Frederick Douglass would lose his “rebellious streak”. It was unnecessary to send him to Convey, but Thomas Auld was an incompetent master who had a bad eye for bad behaviour. Douglass told us that “Captain Auld [Thomas] was not born a slaveholder. He had been a poor man, master only of a Bay craft.” (65); this was a likely mistake for him to make.
Regardless, he was sent to Covey to be broken. Initially the breaking was a success. Covey’s unreasonable cruelty was effective, and it took all Douglass’s energy to remain alive. One day, Douglass was weak and tired and collapsed. This, of course, merited a beating. Douglass saw the obvious lack of justice in this beating and despite his fatigue and pain he escaped Covey, and he ran back to Thomas. Running from a master was a crime punishable by death, and Douglass knew that Covey was going to beat him within an inch of it if he ever got his hands on Douglass. Thomas informed Douglass that he needed to go back to Covey, and Douglass did. Douglass took his time however, and what he did next identifies a huge turning point in his perception of knowledge. He first met Sandy Jenkins, who is a symbol of the foolish slave. Sandy gave him a root that was supposed to give him protection from any beatings that Covey may have inflicted upon him. A few days later, Covey attacked him in an attempt to discipline him. Douglass resisted. Being stronger than Covey he did so successfully. This act of self-defence is a sign of Douglass beginning to think rationally, and honoring his independence. He said “Mr. Covey had acquired a very high reputation for breaking young slaves, and this reputation was of immense value to him.”(69). The risk Douglass took was calculated; He is thinking for himself. He is not just becoming one of the flock. He begins to view his knowledge and his intelligence as a tool for his success. He is renouncing the foolish superstition of the slaves like Sandy, and taking action towards his own individual goals. After his time with Covey Douglass is sent to his kindest master: Freeland. With Freeland he becomes attached to some of his brothers in bonds. They begin to plan an escape. Douglass is beginning to use his knowledge as a tool to escape. He does not escape this time however; his plot is exposed and the group of conspirators is thrown in jail before they are able to escape. Douglass is becoming “unfit” to be a slave, just as Thomas feared. Late into Douglass’s slavery the only thoughts on his mind are those of freedom and escape. He is hired out to caulk ships in Baltimore. He is still seeking out ways to learn new words, ways to increase his knowledge and literacy. He has embraced his intelligence, and he no longer views it as a hinderance. Eventually he convinced Hugh to let him hire himself out, and although Hugh places some unreasonable conditions Douglass accepted. Douglass fought through many hard days of working for himself, but was eventually unable to pay the ridiculous fines that Hugh charged him for his relative freedom. Douglass had been planning for this however, he had once again used his intelligence for his benefit. Douglass had saved enough money to pay the various expenses involved in getting to New York. He used his his knowledge of ships and shipping as a ship’s caulker and he posed as a sailor. He sailed through Philadelphia to New York City. Here he was exposed to new media that shared his opinions on slavery such as magazines like “The Liberator”. His intelligence became his greatest ally, he had to rely only on himself. At this point Douglass was truly alone. Eventually he met David Ruggles, an abolitionist, who helped Douglass greatly on the path to becoming an abolitionist as well. He payed for Douglass’s travel to Massachusetts where he would meet William Lloyd Garrison, the author of “The Liberator”. Garrison would inspire Douglass to release his eloquently written narrative. Douglass had transformed from someone who believed that knowledge was a curse, into a well educated orator. Frederick Douglass’s opinion of knowlege changed vastly over the course of the narrative. While it is important to note that he believed that knowledge was not enough for slaves to free themselves, it is safe to say that it was one of the most important rungs on the ladder out of the pit of slavery. Douglass transitioned from a child abused for his literacy and looked down upon for his intelligence into an adult who was proud of his intellectual ability.
Thomas Auld had been a poor men and he came into possession of all his slaves by marriage. He was a cowardly cruel slaveholder and he didn’t have the ability to hold slaves. He also realized that his incapable of managing his slaves. However, he wanted the power and wished to be called master by his slaves (Douglass, p. 76~77). He became a cruel man from possessing all of his wife’s slaves and becoming a slaveholder. He had to be cruel to be looked like a powerful slavehol...
One day, Douglass eavesdrops on him and Mrs. Auld’s conversation. Mr. Auld persuades her that reading “could do him (Douglass) no good, but a great deal of harm.” (page 39) This antithesis along with the rest of his statement makes Douglass come to the realization that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day on, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write,
In order for Douglass to reach his goal of becoming a free man he thought the only way out was education. He needed to learn how to read, write, and think for himself about what slavery was. Since literacy and education were so powerful to Frederick he persevered to get himself the education he wanted. …. Douglass knew it wouldn’t be easy, but that didn’t stop him. Douglass realized the “ conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with a high hope, and
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
Like most southern slave owners Thomas Auld was a cruel master who always disciplined his slaves for their wrong doings. He was a cowardly man because he didn’t have the ability or courage to properly hold slaves, but “he found himself incapable of managing his slaves either by force, fear, or fraud” (pg. 380). Auld was a merciless man that worked the slaves to the limit and barely gave them enough to eat. Douglass mentioned how often slaves stole food in order to survive and to prevent from becoming ill. “We were therefore reduced to the wretched necessity of living at the expense of out neighbors. This is what we did by begging or stealing […]” (pg. 379). Most slave owners were unsympathetic towards their slaves; however, Douglass found from experience that “adopted slaveholders are the worst”. Since adopted slave owners were married into slave owning and weren’t raised among slavery, Douglass believed that they didn’t know how to tr...
...e proper descriptions of Douglass’s experiences. These words also justify that he is brilliant and not no fool. His influential words in the narrative support the message of him being smarter than what some people may believe.
Their education had given them a new perspective of everything around them—a glimpse to a whole new world. Upon learning to read, Douglass began to realize how an education could ruin slaves. With education, comes enlightenment, and for him his enlightenment was the realization to the injustices going on around him. With him finally being able to read, he understood more fully the implications of slavery sometimes served to make him more miserable as he came to comprehend the hopelessness of the situation for himself and the other slaves. He states in his narrative, “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me” (268) because he realized that his knowledge came at a cost—he knew that there was nothing normal and right about slavery, yet he had to live as one—whatever knowledge he had attained, festered in his mind and made him even unhappier with the conditions and treatment than
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).
Douglass' enslaved life was not an accurate representation of the common and assumed life of a slave. He, actually, often wished that he was not so different and had the same painful, but simpler ignorance that the other slaves had. It was his difference, his striving to learn and be free, that made his life so complicated and made him struggle so indefinitely. Douglass expresses this in writing, "I envied my fellow slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beastIt was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me" (Douglass, 53).
When first introduced to Douglass and his story, we find him to be a young slave boy filled with information about those around him. Not only does he speak from the view point of an observer, but he speaks of many typical stereotypes in the slave life. At this point in his life, Frederick is inexperienced and knows nothing of the pleasures of things such as reading, writing, or even the rights everyone should be entitled to. Douglass knowing hardly anything of his family, their whereabouts, or his background, seems to be equivalent to the many other slaves at the time. As a child Frederick Douglass sees the injustices around him and observes them, yet as the story continues we begin to see a change.
In Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, one of the major themes is how the institution of slavery has an effect on the moral health of the slaveholder. The power slaveholders have over their slaves is great, as well as corrupting. Douglass uses this theme to point out that the institution of slavery is bad for everyone involved, not just the slaves. Throughout the narrative, Douglass uses several of his former slaveholders as examples. Sophia Auld, once such a kind and caring woman, is transformed into a cruel and oppressive slave owner over the course of the narrative. Thomas Auld, also. Douglass ties this theme back to the main concern of authorial control. Although this is a personal account, it is also a tool of propaganda, and is used as such. Douglass’s intent is to convince readers that the system of slavery is horrible and damaging to all included, and thus should be abolished completely. Douglass makes it very clear in his examples how exactly the transformation occurs and how kind and moral people can become those who beat their slaves and pervert Christianity in an attempt to justify it.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
In the end, Frederick Douglass was a very successful and smart African American. Infact of him being a slave back then. Most slaves couldn’t receive education due to slavery and racism.
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
Without being educated, slavers endure dehumanization and the control of their slaveholders. As a result, Douglass is motivated to get literate with ingenious strategies. He constantly bribes the “little white boys” and the “poor white children” who live closely with him to teach him reading with extra bread (Douglass 62). His writing lessons are from the boys who can compete with him in writing letters, Master Thomas’s book, and ship-yard. Along with his reading’s improvement, he comprehends the injustice between slaves and slaveholders from the books. A book “The Columbian Orator”, which provokes him the critical thinking about slavery and freedom. Through reading the Sheridan’s speeches that are from the same book, he claims, “[w]hat I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights” (Douglass 62). Sometimes he listens the discussion of abolition even though he does not really understands it. Until he gets a city paper that allows him to pray for “the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia” (Douglass 63), he understands the meaning of abolition. Being literate helps him understand the extensive knowledge, which is ready for