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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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This was a feat that now only grew their want for knowledge, but also grew the want for freedom. When Mrs. Auld taught Douglass to write her husband interrupted and conveyed the common belief that teaching a slave to read would ruin him or her. “If you teach that nigger 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,” Douglass quoted his livid master (Douglass 1196.)

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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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In Frederick Douglass’ passage, “Learning to Read and Write”, his mistress’ decision to halt his education creates an obstacle that he overcomes through creative acts. Ever since Douglass was a child, he was separated from his family to become a slave for life meaning he wasn’t offered an education unless their master wanted to. In Douglass’ case, his master decided to teach him until the purpose of slavery caught up to her, “ the first step in her downward course was in her ceasing to instruct [him]” (17). Without his mistress’ help in instructing him, Douglass didn’t have an obvious opportunity in an education instead, he began to read at any chance given to him. With the urge Frederick Douglass had in wanting to learn and read more, he had

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Frederick Douglass – Learning to Read and Write Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1817, in 1838 he was roughly twenty-one years old he escaped to and went north, where he settled in Massachusetts and eventually joined the abolition movement to end slavery. He knew as a young child that he wanted to learn how to read and write and did not understand why his masters would not allow him or his fellow slaves to become educated. I agree with the summary by Frederick Douglass that whether you are a slave or not, no one can stop a person who wants the knowledge and an opportunity to learn. Douglass believed that according to the United States Constitution that black Americans had the same rights to participate in the economy, and social

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Frederick Douglass is a former slave, writer, and abolitionist. Douglass uses his writing as a way to convince white Americans to abolish slavery, One of his writing’s is in the form of a book called The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass where he talks about his experience living as a slave and how it affected him and the slaves around him. Douglass narrative serves as an indictment of the institution of slavery by showing how slavery dehumanizes slaves, how slavery is racist and shows the sexual abuse faced by the slaves. To begin with, Douglass’ narrative shows the way slavery dehumanizes the slave’s. Douglass goes into detail on how he was ranked among different slaves and animals.

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One of Douglass’ first plans involved befriending all the little white boys in his neighborhood with the reward of bread in exchange for some knowledge on how to read. As well as learning to write by copying the letters ship carpenters would write on pieces of timber and then tricking a neighborhood boy into a writing game to see who was the better writer. He concocted these strategies knowing that a punishment awaited if caught by his master. Actually, this was one of the main reasons why many enslaved African Americans did not venture to pursue literacy. For most the cost of learning to read and maybe achieving freedom greatly faltered in comparison to the cruel treatment slave masters would

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This in the long run would hurt her more and benefited him. Douglass learned, “From that moment on [and] understood the pathway from slavery to freedom” (Douglass, 20). Slaves were not allowed to read and/or write, but some

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586 Words | 3 Pages

As a slave, he was not allowed to learn how to read or write, as slaveholders believed that educated slaves would be more likely to rebel. However, Douglass was determined to learn how to read and write, and he taught himself how to do so with the help of kind-hearted white children in the neighborhood who taught him the alphabet. Later, he would read newspapers, books, and political pamphlets, which helped him develop a critical view of slavery and fueled his desire for freedom. Learning to read and write was a turning point in Douglass's life

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“Raised by his maternal grandmother on the Tuckahoe, Maryland, estate of captain Aaron Anthony, he enjoyed a relatively happy childhood until he was pressed into service on the plantation of Anthony’s employer, Edward Lloyd” (“Frederick Douglass”). His grandmother’s house was located only miles away from the plantation and his mother but they were never allowed to see each other. Life as a slave was hard he made it through. The experience molded him and made him want to be an amazing man.

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African-American slaves were forbidden to obtain the knowledge of being able to read or write, stemming from the fear of white masters that educated slaves will overpower them. Douglass managed to learn to read by bribing poor and hungry white boys into teaching him in exchange for bits of bread. Douglass illustrates his thirst for literacy through “[The] bread [he] used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give [him] that more valuable bread of knowledge” (pg 23). This reveals how much Douglass valued education and took advantage of all the knowledge he had access to. Today’s youth, especially the ones belonging to a minority

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Douglass states: “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery” (Douglass 51). Reading and writing opened Frederick Douglass’s eyes to the cause of the abolitionist. He became knowledgeable about a topic that white slave owners tried to keep hidden from their slaves. Literacy would eventually impact his life in more ways than what he could see while he was a young slave under Master Hugh’s

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That being said, when Douglass was taught how to read by his mistress, his master grew angry. “If you give a n-- an inch, he will take an ell. A n-- should know nothing but to obey his master-- to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best n-- in the world.” (Douglass 29) Douglass’ master was aware that learning how to read and write could expand his desire for more in life and ultimately trigger a rebellion.

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