Frederick Douglass was a popular writer and orator who escaped from slavery to become
an abolitionist. He was a strong proponent of education provision and one of his most famous
quotes is, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free”. He strongly believed in the power
of having knowledge and being literate. Frederick Douglass was of the opinion that if slaves had
knowledge, they would want more for themselves; they would not have been comfortable being
the slaves that they were. In his book, The Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass, he gives a
personal recount of his life in slavery, his experiences as a slave and the experiences of other
slaves. He narrates on the brutality of the slave masters who would mercilessly whip the
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slaves. People took great joy when they marginalized others because some lives were believed to be more important and showing mercy to a slave was deemed as an aspect of weakness. The scope and purpose of the book is to give a detailed account of the lives of the black American people before slavery was abolished. Douglass also explained how religion was used as a reason for dehumanization and the control of other people. Douglass believed that slavery was bad for both the slaves and the slave holder. Slaves received humiliations and beatings, deaths of sleep, extreme hot or cold weather conditions, individuality suppression, oppression, racism, and estrangement from families and loved ones as well as insults and other abuses. On the flipside, the slave owners exercised humanity vices without any restraint and this took a psychological toll on them. The slave owners were capricious, blasphemous, ignorant, cruel, greedy, and violent and intolerant. The author wrote that, “Thus is slavery the enemy of both the slave and the slaveholder.” (Douglass, 31). To elucidate his assertion, the author uses the example of his mistress Sophia who was previously charitable and kind but later the effects of slavery blighted her personality. The writer gives a detailed account as to how the lack people suffered in the hands of their masters. Religion is a major component of the novel. The author declares his personal stand in terms of Christianity and devotion to it. He strongly distinguishes his faith from that of the slavery owners. “From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom.” (Douglass, 30). The book focuses on the attempts of the author to meet his previous masters after the Civil War died down. By the time the book arrives at the scenes of interracial reconciliation, the tone of the book has grown very tolerant to the author’s masters. One of the most important themes that is deeply rooted in this book is the relationship between freedom and literacy.
According to Douglass, this was a two edged sword because acquisition of one of the aspects
precipitated the desire or need for the second entity. Douglass gives a contradictory recount
where he believes that knowledge is very important in order to bring slavery at a halt. However
he still argues that a slave, he preferred to not having knowledge because having knowledge and
still being a slave made him very miserable. However his ability to recount his personal story
refuted the belief that was very commonly held that slaves could not communicate through the
stipulated standards of the American literature.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is based on an action that is twofold in
nature. The narrative acts in a manner to suggest protest against slavery yet it at the same time
persuades the reader that the author has been transformed and he is no longer a slave. This effect
is achieved when the author creates a complex structure with two “I’s”, one being the author as a
slave and the other as a free transformed man. The tension between these two narrators gives rise
to concept complexity by illustration f the changes that the author has
undergone.
Douglass views his education as his most important feature, but he also enables his brain to the realizing of the torture upon his fellow slaves. Douglass was not allowed to learn, because he was a slave, and they didn’t want slaves to become smarter than the whites. In the passage it states, “learning would ...
A staunch abolitionist, Douglass would take the country by storm through the power of his words and writings. His narrative was unique in regards to how it was written and the content it holds. Unlike most biographies of freed slaves, Douglass would write his own story and with his own words. His narrative would attempt to understand the effects slavery was having on not just the slaves, but the slaveholders as well. The success of his biography, however, did not rest on the amount of horror in it but from the unmistakable authenticity it provided. His narrative would compel his readers to take action with graphic accounts of the lashes slaves would receive as punishment, “the loude...
Douglass, Frederick. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: Written by Himself (ed. John Blassingame) Yale University Press, 2001.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass written by Frederick Douglass himself is a brutally honest portrayal of slavery's dehumanizing capabilities. The style of this famous autobiography can be best described as personal, emotional, and compelling. By writing this narrative, Douglass wants his audience to understand him. He does this by speaking informally like a person would when writing a letter or telling a story to a friend. By clearly establishing his credibility and connecting with his audience, Douglass uses numerous rhetorical devices to argue for the immorality of slavery.
years of slavery. This is a shock to the narrator because it forces him to realize how
In The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, an African American male describes his day as a slave and what he has become from the experience. Douglass writes this story to make readers understand that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that he still has intellectual ability even though he is a slave. In the story, these messages are shown frequently through the diction of Frederick Douglass.
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
speech, he made it known clearly, his detestment for the treatment of Black slaves of the
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).
Gaining mental emancipation also made him a man. He had the power of knowledge and yet he didn't know the impact of being literate. He wasn't ready to have his world open right in front of him. Being able to read opened Douglass' eyes to what slavery really was. "He got the bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights."*(278) He saw things that he would have never seen if he had remained ignorant. He saw all the horrors and sadness of his life as a slave. He wasn't quite ready for the harsh realities that he was then exposed to. He felt that his master, Master Hugh, was right. Douglass learning to read brought him the discontentment, torment and anguish that Master Hugh said would follow if a slave learned how to read.* (279) The visions that Douglass saw was really affecting him. He saw things he never saw before. Dou...
Douglass's narrative is, on one surface, intended to show the barbarity and injustice of slavery. However, the underlying argument is that freedom is not simply attained through a physical escape from forced labor, but through a mental liberation from the attitude created by Southern slavery. The slaves of the South were psychologically oppressed by the slaveholders' disrespect for a slave’s family and for their education, as well as by the slaves' acceptance of their own subordination. Additionally, the slaveholders were trapped by a mentality that allowed them to justify behavior towards human beings that would normally not be acceptable. In this manner, both slaveholder and slave are corrupted by slavery.
Douglass, Frederick. “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.
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
In the essay “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass illustrates how he successfully overcome the tremendous difficulties to become literate. He also explains the injustice between slavers and slaveholders. Douglass believes that education is the key to freedom for slavers. Similarly, many of us regard education as the path to achieve a career from a job.
As both the narrator and author of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself” Frederick Douglass writes about his transition from a slave to a well educated and empowered colored young man. As a skilled and spirited man, he served as both an orator and writer for the abolitionist movement, which was a movement to the abolishment of slavery. At the time of his narrative’s publication, Douglass’s sole goal of his writings was to essentially prove to those in disbelief that an articulate and intelligent man, such as himself, could have,in fact, been enslaved at one point in time. While, Douglass’ narrative was and arguably still is very influential, there are some controversial aspects of of this piece, of which Deborah McDowell mentions in her criticism.