The two central ideas in “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is what produces a complex account of Frederick Douglass’s experiences in Baltimore. Let’s further explain these two central ideas in order to better understand how they do this.
The first central idea is slavery can have a horrific effect on both slaves and slave owners. Douglass gives two reasons behind this idea in the text. The first reason is under the influence of slavery slave masters hearts can turn to stone. Meaning they can turn very stern or cruel. This specifically is what happens to the majority of slave owners and why slavery can hurt them too. The second reason is when Douglass describes the ownership of slaves as the “fatal poison of irresponsible power”
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The second idea is education and slavery are not compatible with one another. Douglass explains this in two different cases. One case is explained through Mrs. Auld husband, Mr. Auld, and the other is through Douglass thoughts. Mr. Auld is obviously influenced by the society of the time. When he tells Mrs. Auld to not teach Douglass how to read or write he justifies that by saying, “if you teach that n!$$%@ 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” (176). Here is when Douglass shows why most slave owners preferred their slaves uneducated. When slaves are educated they become hard to control or have power over. Therefore, they would be unfit to be a slave and no use to their “master”. This view is why slave owners would agree that education and slavery are not compatible with one another. But Frederick Douglass, a slave, had a somewhat different view of why education and slavery are not compatible with one another. Now that Douglass is educated he is more aware of his surrounding. He sees things differently now that he has the knowledge to do so.