Slavery In The Columbian Orator, By Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was born in a time where life for African Americans was unfair and poor. He was a man born into slavery, but he changed his own course of life and many others with learning to read and write. With the help of his owner’s wife he learned enough to start his own education and eventually escaped to freedom. Reading was such a central concern to Douglass for many reasons including: Reading about slavery helps Douglass to understand slavery, Douglass sees reading as knowledge that will help lead to freedom, Douglass through learning to read is able to participate in politics, and lastly Douglass takes reading as a privilege and does not take it for granted. In the following paper these reasons will be discussed in greater detail.

In the passion described through Frederick Douglass’s narrative excerpt, he reveals his difficult walk as a slave in “Learning to Read and Write.” Back in the mid 1800’s, Douglass became a recognized leader in the abolitionist movement; reassuring the enslaved in the southern United States that freedom is attainable. Douglass demonstrates, through his eyes, how one person’s passion to learn, could lead to a promising future. Douglass applies his mixed subjective experience and expressive tone to communicate his story to the audience who could influence the most change – abolitionists.

When he was on a plantation, farther away from prying eyes and ears, the slave masters and overseers would treat them harsher with more brutality than what would be accepted in the city, but this did nothing to slow Frederick Douglass down in his determination to be free. It is believed that there was more moral in the city slave master then there was in the plantation slave master.“A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation… There is a vestige of decency, a sense of shame, that does much to curb and check those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty so commonly enacted upon the plantation.”(49). When Douglass was in Baltimore, he learned to read and to write, at first from his mistress, but once she was warned away from doing so, she would try to keep him as far away from books and reading, but this only made him determined to read. “ … the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to

In the narrative excerpt “Learning to Read and Write” (1845), which originally came from the autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass recapitulates his journey into the coming of literacy that shifts his point to how slavery really is. Douglass develops and supports his main idea by providing a flashback of his own experience as a slave learning to read and write and through dialogue with rhetorical appeals, such as ethos, pathos, and logos. Douglass’ apparent purpose is to retell his story of the obstacles he faced to finally become a free man to guide and prompt other fellow slaves to finally take action for their freedom; he also wants to establish a foundation in which people of higher power, such as abolitionists, are more aware of the slavery situation. The intended audience for this excerpt is the general public of the time consisting of fellow slaves, slave owners, and abolitionists; the relationship Douglass establishes with the audience is equivalent to a news reporter and the people receiving the message—he exposes the truth to them.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle. Napoleon Hill. The one who does not know the struggle of life is either an immature soul or a soul who has risen above the life of this world. The object of a human being in this world is to attain to the perfection of humanity, and therefore it is necessary that man should go through what we call the struggle of life. Insert thesis

Fredrick Douglass gives readers insight into the unexamined life of a thoughtful slave. Throughout his journey from slave to free man, Douglass transforms himself from the overly perpetuated “contented” slave to an individual free thinker. Unfortunately, he is faced with the sharp reality of the manufacturing of slaves for revenue, and grapples with his own morality and those of the people around him. His risky intuitions and opinions of slavery and the bondage of people by people challenged the profit-seeking mentalities of the slave owners and the purposeful manipulation of slaves to be compliant. Fredrick Douglass, through his narrative, proves he is an exception in his community and shows how his journey to become educated leads to personal discoveries about his purpose and the role he played in the artificiality of slavery.

In the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass finds himself moving to and from different masters in chapters seven through nine. What really stood out about his moving is that during the process, Douglass managed to learn how to read and write proficiently without his slaves owners finding out. At first the wife of Master Hugh’s, was being quite pious but her husband brainwashed her to become a cruel women. Although this happened, Douglass still manages to learn. However, Douglass yearning for reading and writing, grew stronger when he read the book “The Columbian Orator.” Douglass states that, “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers” (534). This statement marks the beginning of Douglass journey

The power of education in “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is one of the most important themes in the entire work, but it is not a theme with a consistent meaning. Although Frederick Douglass understands that the only path to freedom, both for himself and fellow slaves, is through learning to read, write, and have an educational base to build on, he is at the same time disgusted with education because it causes him to understand the full extent of the horrors of slavery. At one point, he states, “It [education] opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but offered no ladder upon

Douglass was briefly saved from an existence of humble plantation work when he was sent to Baltimore to work for a shipwright. There, his mistress showed him to read until her husband pronounced that "learning would ruin" him. Douglass proceeded with all his training alone. With fifty pennies that he earned blacking boots, Douglass purchased a duplicate of the Columbian Orator, a gathering of talks that incorporated a ranking assault on bondage. This book acquainted him with the thoughts of the Edification and the American Unrest and enlivened him to impeccable his stylistic abilities.

Frederick Douglass’s narrative emphasizes on education and knowledge as a means of freedom. This emphasis on education as a means of freedom is seen through the masters attempt to keep the slaves ignorant. It is also seen in Douglass’s vey persistent pursuit of knowledge. First, it is important to understand the importance of education and its role in freedom through the lens of the masters. This significance is apparent by masters’ reaction to their slaves attempting to educate themselves. A perfect example of this is when Douglass’s mistress begins to teach him his ABCs. His mistress was unaware of the power education held until her husband caught her teaching

He would pay for these “lessons” with pieces of bread taken from the Auld house (8, 2). This idea was proved to be successful by its positive results; Mr. Douglass gradually learned to read (2, 208). By the time he was twelve, he used the little money he had earned from doing tedious errands and bought a copy of The Columbian Orator (6). That Columbian Orator had a collection of speeches and essays dealing with liberty, democracy, and courage (6). Frederick was profoundly affected by the speeches on freedom and began reading local newspapers to learn more about abolitionism (8, 2). His dreams of freedom and emancipation were encouraged by the example of other coloreds in Baltimore, most of who were free (8, 2). However, Douglass’s imaginings were delayed because of new laws passed by southern state legislatures that made it extremely difficult for owners to free their slaves (8, 2). Frederick’s dreams of his own freedom and civil rights for all seemed to be put on

In the excerpt “Learning to Read and Write”, Frederick Douglass talks about his experiences in slavery living in his masters house and his struggle to learn how to read and write. Frederick Douglass was an African American social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman. Some of his other writings include “The Heroic Slave”, “My Bondage and My Freedom”, and “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”. In this excerpt, Frederick Douglass uses an empathic tone, imagery, certain verb choice, contrast, and metaphors to inform African Americans of how important it is to learn to read and write and also to inform a white American audience of the evils of slavery. I find Frederick Douglass to

Reading opened his eyes to his “wretched condition” (2057) and he longed for independence and freedom. He did not desire this for himself alone, but also for his fellow slaves. He “imbue[d] their minds with thoughts of freedom” and sought to “impress them with the gross fraud and inhumanity of slavery” (2077). Douglass took the lead in devising the plans of escape; his skill in reading and writing was instrumental in his plans. While at Master Hugh’s, Douglass acquired the copy-books of his master’s son, Thomas. He taught himself to write and soon “could write a hand very similar to that of Master Thomas” (2059). This ability helped Douglass to formulate the plan of escape from Mr. Hamilton. He wrote several “protections” for himself and the other runaways under the name of Mr. Hamilton’s. Though this escape attempt was unsuccessful, it is a testimony to the Douglass’ genius which would not have existed without his education. His ability to read and write planted the desire for freedom and enabled him to attempt to achieve it.

Douglass’s escape from slavery and eventual freedom are inseparable from his movingly narrated attainment of literacy. Douglass saw slavery as a

Frederick Douglass realized that reading and writing can greatly benefit him in the near future, but he also struggled emotionally due to his new skills. Douglass was reading The Columbian Orator, which is the story about an educated slave having a conversation with his master that results with an unexpected surprise. Frederick Douglass, an African-American social reformer and writer, writes in “Learning to Read and Write” that “The slave was made to say some very smart as well as impressive things in reply to his master-things which had the desired though unexpected