Frederick Douglass Response Paper

When Mrs. Auld teaches Frederick Douglass how to read, he realizes that the road to freedom correlates with education. However, Douglass learns this through Mr. Auld’s refusal to allow his wife to teach Douglass literacy. Auld explains to his wife, “It would forever unfit him to be a slave” (VI.409). Overhearing this, Frederick understood why masters have so much control over their slaves. They inflicted not only physical, but also mental brutality. Douglass' determination to learn how to read and write will help him develop goals, learn about justice, and legal rights. Douglass will use this knowledge to reject the notion of white superiority. He began to slowly understand his self-worth, this is exemplified when he fights Mr. Covey, and wins. Douglass proclaims, “This battle

However, by getting herself pregnant by a white man of her choosing, she was able to escape Dr. Flint. Jacobs refused to submit to her master’s rape, making a choice demonstrating her self-determination: Harriet writes, “It seems less degrading to give one’s self then to submit to compulsion” (X.291). Thinking of her children’s freedom, Jacobs escaped the home of Flint, hiding in a crawl space above a storeroom in her grandmother’s house for seven years. Harriet took the fate of her children in her own hands, hoping her escape would prompt Dr. Flint to sell her children to their father. Finally making it to New York, Jacobs spent 10 years as a fugitive slave on the move. Harriet being on the run connected her to antislavery activists. During which, she worked in Frederick Douglass’ newspaper office, providing her the resources to make her story pubic. Eventually, Harriet was given the opportunity to be bought by her good-hearted mistress, and rid herself of being a fugitive slave belonging to a slave state. Most slaves would be thrilled, but she knew she was a person, she was ambivalent. This was Harriet’s final demonstration of