Fredrick Douglass Narrative Analysis

Frederick Douglass’s book, “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, shows a tough life story about how being educated is the reason that he was able to escape slavery, since learning that being educated would be his pathway out of slavery Douglass did everything in his power to get educated. His old master Ms.Auld was new to being a slave master, and her lack of experience with slaves caused her to make a huge mistake, teaching a slave the alphabet. In response to this Ms.Auld’s husband warned her that teaching a slave to read is illegal. This stopped the lessons from Ms.Auld but Douglass was determined, he did everything in his power to learn to read, he bribed little white boys for books and that was when he was able to discover himself and liberate himself, all of this simply because Douglass overheard Ms.Auld’s husband say “that it is unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read” and that it would make someone“forever unfit to be a slave”(Douglass 41) in other words, receiving an education will allow you to be defined as human which is precisely what Douglass wants.

Picture this going through life without the ability to read or write. Without these abilities, it is impossible for a person to be a functioning member of society. In addition, imagine that someone is purposely limiting your knowledge to keep a leash on your independence. Not only is an American slave raised without skills in literacy, he cannot be taught to read unless someone breaks the law. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the reader is given a detailed explanation of why slave masters keep their slaves ignorant and the effects such a strategy has on the slaves’ lives. In his autobiography, Douglass describes how the knowledge he obtains has substantial positive and negative effects on his psyche. He is given renewed passion and hope for freedom while struggling with the burden of enlightenment of his situation. Ultimately, however, education shapes his fate, and he achieves freedom and prominence as an advocate for abolition.

Throughout this excerpt from his autobiography, Frederick Douglass constantly refers to the importance of Education and Literacy. He continuously details not only that education represented power, but also that an educated and literate slave would be dangerous in the eyes of the slave-loving southerners. Education all throughout time has represented knowledge, and knowledge is seen as power, both of which could easily corrupt someone, hence why slave owners chose to keep slaves in the dark in regards to education. Douglass argued that education was seen as the key to success and free thoughts, however, both were luxuries unknown to a slave unless they took matters into their own hands.

Since slaves were not allowed schooling, illiteracy was very common for African Americans slaves. For many people not accustomed to slavery, it was believed that slavery was simply a state of natural being. People believed African Americans were inherently incapable of residing in their society and consequently should live as laborers for white slave owners. Enforcing illiteracy among children deprived them of their necessary morality and ethics. Southern slave owners used this to their advantage control how the remainder of the country viewed slavery. If slaves were illiterate, they were incapable of telling their side of slavery. Douglass is saying that knowledge is key to winning against slavery. His quote, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man” (Douglass) describes his transformation as a slave with little knowledge and education to a man who has become very knowledgeable and educated to beat slavery. Douglass uses knowledge as the road to his freedom. He seeks knowledge and education to help slaves voice the wrong doings slaveholders are bringing upon blacks. Douglass helps slaves discover their selves not as slaves but as men instead.

Frederick Douglass, an African American slave, searches for liberation against the shackles of slavery through education; as told in Frederick Douglass’ Narrative in a Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass portrays education as a paradox; knowledge brings him both great joy and great pain. Learning opens up new worlds for Douglass, and he becomes obsessed with the possibility of freedom. At the same time, he envies his fellow slaves for their ignorance. They do not understand what their enslavers have stolen from them. Douglass grapples with the hopelessness of his plight, but knowledge empowers him enough to set himself free from a life of benightedness, and to share that knowledge with others.

Mr. Douglass learned to read and write. His mistress according to Mr. Douglass, “kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters” (Douglass, 48). Which would have been illegal. She didn’t stop teaching him until her husband’s response to teaching him to read “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. Learning will spoil the best nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy.” Mr. Douglass considered the pathway to his freedom to be learning to read and that keeping him illiterate was the means of the white man’s power so he set out to learn how to read and according to him “The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street” (Douglass, 52). He learned how to use the system to his advantage. He learned that “A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation” (Douglass, 49). And used this to his advantage. He also was able to get “the privilege of hiring

Douglass was motivated to learn how to read by hearing his master condemn the education of slaves. Mr. Auld declared that an education would “spoil” him and “forever unfit him to be a slave” (2054). He believed that the ability to read makes a slave “unmanageable” and “discontented” (2054). Douglass discovered that the “white man’s power to enslave the black man” (2054) was in his literacy and education. As long as the

During the 1800’s, the institution of slavery was still ongoing in the few slave states left in America. Slavery was still proving to be unjust and unfair, not allowing for African Americans to be considered equals. However, some slaves were able to overcome the many restrictions and boundaries that slavery forced upon them. In Frederick Douglass’ essay “Learning to Read and Write,” Douglass portrays himself as an intelligent and dignified slave who’s able to overcome the racial boundaries placed upon him. Frederick Douglass saw that his only pathway to freedom was through literacy, so his goal was to learn how to read and write no matter the circumstances. Douglass realized

Today, many people look at slavery as an abomination and as a dark period of our nation’s history. However, when slavery was legal, many thought of it as necessary, even the slaves, and even believed it was a good thing, as to whites, Africans were intellectually inferior. However, Frederick Douglass, in his autobiography The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, debunks the mythology of slavery. Through the use of his experiences and words, he rebukes the romantic image of slavery, testifies against the belief of black intellectual inferiority, and shows how the system was designed to make slaves believe that they were better off as slaves. Through Douglass’s testimonies of his personal experiences, he shows the falsehood of the romantic

Douglass convinces his audience of his intelligence when he presents his speech in the preface. William Lloyd Garrison was heavily moved by Douglass’ speech, noting that enslaved whites can also “lose all reasoning power” and plummet in the “scale of humanity” (7). The fact that a white man was affected by a black man’s eloquence demonstrates that blacks are not intellectually inferior. If blacks were given the same quality of education as whites, they would be as intelligent, if not more. Because Douglass attained an education as a slave, he was able to convey his experiences with poignant words, thus displaying his acumen. Besides Douglass, other slaves on the plantation display intellectual capabilities. During his enslavement to Mr. Freeland, Douglass taught other slaves to read. Despite that the slaves would face brutal punishment, they still sought education because their minds were “starved by their cruel masters” (88). The slaves’ willingness to learn debunks not only their inferiority, but also reveals that their masters were the cause of their ignorance. Even though slaveholders assume they need to protect the slaves by bringing them to their community, Douglass argues that enslavement provides no benefits. Slaves are highly capable of possessing intelligence, but slaveholders hinder them from this

In The Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, written by himself the author asserts that the way to enslave someone is to keep them from learning at all. Douglass supports his claim by, first, when Frederick was small he was never able to tell his age or the date, and secondly, they were never allowed to be taught how to read that was something always hidden from him as a young child. The author’s purpose is to inform the reader that as a slave there were so many things they were not allowed to have that we may take for granted, in order to make it very clear that we should not take our education and opportunities for granted. Based on The Life Of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, Douglass is writing for the white people who believed that slavery was right, he wanted to make it very clear that the slaves and Douglass had nothing handed to them.

After being “gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, …gained from [his] master,” Douglass retrieves greater sight of his situation and is “set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read” (32). Realizing that educating himself is the path to freedom, Douglass is inspired “with a desire and determination to learn” for the purpose of gaining his individual freedom (33). This determination coming from a slave like Douglass extends onto the idea that knowledge truly is power, and can lead to freedom even when situated into the life of a slave. But having taken away his mentor, Douglass must now resort to his own determination to accomplish his goals.

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the dehumanization of slaves often occurs, as white plantation owners view slaves as objects undeserving of humane treatment in order to uphold power and warrant their unjust practices. Limiting knowledge and prohibiting education for African Americans was one strategy common among slave owners, as “it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (17). Due to their lack of intellect, slaves could not recognize the injustices of the slavery system and had little chances of escaping. When Mrs. Auld attempts to teach Frederick Douglass how to read and write, Mr. Auld claims, “A n***** should know nothing but to obey

Fredrick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write”, gives readers insight into the struggles of being a slave with intelligence, but more importantly into his experience. In his essay, Douglass shows how he fought to obtain knowledge; however, a reading of his story will reveal that what he learned changed him for the better. Michael Scott, a former EOF student read the story and believed that Douglass’s intelligence was a destructive and to a certain degree pointless. Contrary to Scott’s statement, Douglass’s knowledge wasn’t more of a curse than a blessing. Being a slave was everyone’s curse. Douglass went into depression because he hadn’t had the same experience as other slaves and finally felt what it was really like to be a slave when he was punished for his knowledge. However just because his knowledge is what got him into trouble doesn’t necessarily make him, being an intelligent slave; a curse nor does it mean that he had absolutely no alternatives to his condition. In fact, he above most other slaves had the upper hand when it came to creating his own alternative. Douglass’s intelligence helped him become autodidactic, manipulate situations to benefit him, and develop an ambition to become free.

Education is a key. Not many can find it, but those who do can unlock the door to endless knowledge. Abolitionist leader and American slave, Frederick Douglass, in his autobiography A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, contemplates the enslavement he endured while emphasizing the importance of education as a key to freedom. Throughout Douglass’s educational awakening and his realization of its overall power, he comes to understand the slaveholder’s evil doings in keeping all slaves trapped in ignorance. Thesis too wordy condense it & briefly incorporate rhetorical strategies he uses (repetition, understatement, imagery, diction, etc).