Published over a century ago, Frederick Douglass’s narrative autobiography gave a look into the harsh reality of the darkest stain on American history. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass presents a compelling argument against the act of enslaving other human beings with detailed events from Douglass’s own life as a slave, ranging from the shockingly horrifying to the poignantly empowering. When it comes to planting the thought that slavery is anything other than one of the purest mutations of evil to stem from the world’s creation, Douglass’s story an effective seed. The dehumanization of slaves is bluntly displayed with an immediacy. The second sentence of Douglass’s tale informs the reader that he has no knowledge of his actual …show more content…
Whites upheld the system of slavery by preventing slaves from being able to do what would now be considered the most basic foundation of knowledge. We again see It was not considered proper for a slave to be able to read or write, and Douglass learns exactly why years after his time as a slave under Captain Anthony. He has been a slave of Colonel Lloyd for a stretch of time when young Douglass is sent to Baltimore to live with his old master’s son-in-law’s brother and wife. His time with the Aulds is considered by Douglass himself a “providence” for he writes that had he not done so, he would probably still have been a slave at his time of writing his narrative. Under the direction of his new master’s wife, Sophia Auld, Douglass began developing the skill that would ultimately change his life and put him on the path to becoming the influential man he grew up to be. When Auld discovers his wife’s actions, he puts a stop to it instantly, claiming that “If you give a nigger an inch, he’ll take an ell.” After this, both the reader and Douglass now begin to conceive the depth behind denying someone the privilege of an education. (p. 40-41) Without it, that person will never know how heavily they are being wronged, nor will they ever know the trueness of the depravity behind what’s being done to them, nor even the fact that they are not at all deserving of the brutality being dealt to them. Without that knowledge, they have no way of breaking out of the chains that have been chafing at them for generations. Keeping someone from an enlightenment of that caliber is the ultimate unkindness one human can dish out to another. It all comes back to the dehumanization of slaves mentioned earlier. Why would something or someone considered to be at the expense of their superior be allowed the key that would free