Injustice Of Slavery

Slavery dates back to the seventeenth century, when Africans were taken from their homeland to the English colonies in the new land of America. Simply regarding an African’s skin color, they were put in the lowest position possible as a slave and treated very poorly. And although the African slaves became African American, they were not treated as a fellow American or and even treated like less than a human. African Americans were completely disregarded and ignored in the constitution, because evidently, some of the fathers of the constitution of the United States of America were slave holders themselves. Constitutionally, slavery was abolished in 1865, but Fredrick Douglass had the opportunity to escape to freedom before then in 1838. In The

On page 37, the audience learns that Fredrick Douglas learned how to read, but his teachings quickly came to an end when Master Hugh said it would be too dangerous for a slave to know how to read and write. Fredrick’s desire to learn how to read and write did not cease and Master Hugh and his wife always kept a close eye on him and did not allow him to be a room alone for a long period of time. It also made his mistress very angry to see Fredrick with a newspaper. The institution of slavery can be very hostile considering the fact that Fredrick simply wanted to read and was scolded and reprimanded when wanting to. Also the white children has the privilege of reading and writing and Fredrick did not because he was a slave. Fredrick’s passion for learning and obtaining more knowledge was very strong which further grew his masters to forbid him from getting an education. This one example out of the many examples of inhumanity of slavery had a great effect on Fredrick and his escape to freedom. The more opportunities he had to read and write, the more he wanted to escape to freedom to get an education like the white children and adults had the privilege to. When he more commonly used his ability to read and write, Fredrick became a deep thinker and came up with a realization about slave holders on page 39, “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. I loathed them as being the meanest as well as the most wicked of men.” Fredrick’s constant thinking had an effect on his escape to freedom because it continually gave him motivation to escape the land of slavery and be a free man and be able to further his