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Frederick Douglass Injustice

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Fredrick Douglass, an Abolitionist writer and escaped slave, has come to be one of the forefathers of the anti-slavery movement in mid-19th century America. In his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave, he showed his audience in grotesque detail the injustices and tortures of slavery. Douglass was born in Talbot County in Maryland, where as a child he owned by a cruel man named Captain Anthony. Throughout his life as a slave he is juggled between a few masters, all in the same family. When Douglass is given to Captain Anthony’s son-in-law, Hugh Auld, he moved from the horrible plantation to city life in Baltimore, Maryland. This is where his journey to escaping begins, of which the actual escape doesn’t happen until …show more content…

When Sophia began teaching Douglass his alphabet however, she was quickly reprimanded for it by her husband. He said it would make Douglass “discontent and unhappy” (p. 62) as well as it would “spoil” (p. 62) him. This quote perfectly sum’s up Douglass’s view on this injustice: “These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty--to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man.” (p. 62) While he was still a child their at the Baltimore house, he was confused as to why he could not learn to read. As an adult, he then understood that it was again a tactic to keep slaves in line. In keeping them uneducated, slaves would be unable to form any written argument against slavery, or learn new ways to combat it. It even kept them in the dark of the abolitionist movement, which was often written about in the newspapers. This act was the slavers way to keep slaves in the dark of their true

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Frederick Douglass was a slave who went on to write a narrative about his life. The Narrative of Frederick Douglass talks about life in slavery, the harsh conditions of slaves, and the cruel punishments they would receive if they disobeyed their masters or overseers. Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland. He had no real information about his age or birthday, nor would he be told. He continuously disproves the idea that “All Men Are Created Equal” in his narrative by talking about the horrible living conditions and the dehumanization of slaves.

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Douglass’s passion to gain knowledge motivated him to teach himself how to read and write; however, Wright’s knowledge developed from being able to go to school and so this is indicative of Douglass experiencing education far worse than Wright. According to Douglass, it was prohibited for slaves to be educated. Since slaves did not have access to an education, Douglass had to find ways to self-teach himself. By virtue of Douglass’s learning, he asserts that: “All the little white boys whom I met in the street… I converted [them] into teachers… [and] I finally succeeded in learning how to read” (Douglass 146).

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Lastly, the slaves were not supposed to be able to read or write, they were denied an education. However, in the city the slaves were able to trick white boys into teaching them or mistresses would secretly educate them. Douglass used this strategy to learn how to read and write while living in the city, “I lived in Master Hugh’s family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write” (Douglass 79). It took Douglass a while to learn basic human necessities, such as reading and writing.

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He described her, as a woman who treated him the way one human being has to treat the other. However, his master immediately put a stop to it because in his view learning to read “would forever unfit him from being a slave.” Douglass took this lesson to heart where he says it “only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn.” At this moment he learned that education is what ruin slaves and education and slavery are not linked together. This encouraged him to work toward becoming free by learning to read and write using several strategies that included offering bread to the white children in exchange for reading lessons and observing the writings of the men he worked with.

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In the text it is stated that "[teaching a slave] was unlawful, as well as unsafe" (824) in which Frederick Douglass later recounts as being true. Douglass recounts of the hatred he felt towards slaveoweners upon being enlightened of slavery as a whole. He further states "that at times [he] feels that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy." This being said, Douglass was distraught at the thought of being a slave forever in which there were very few possibilities of his freedom.

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