Value Of Slave Children

Douglass values education and knowledge to the highest extent. He gained this knowledge from being taught by Mrs. Auld and by tricking the white kids into teaching him. The people around him are trying to keep literacy away from slaves like him, because it is their way out of slavery. Like when Mr. Auld prevents Mrs. Auld from teaching Douglass and explains why he does so,” If you teach that slave

Frederick Douglass was also influenced by his exposure to slavery in his desire to read and write. Slave owners purposefully kept their slaves uneducated and illiterate in an effort to prevent rebellion or free-thinking. Mr. Auld, one of Douglass’ masters, followed this model, and he chided his wife for teaching Douglass how to read and write, saying that Douglass would become unmanageable and worthless to his master because of his literacy. Mr. Auld recognized that literacy would widen Douglass’ horizons, and that his knowledge of a wider world would lead to him becoming unhappy with his enslavement. Upon hearing this, Douglass recognizes the power of literacy as his path to freedom, and resolves himself to learn how to read and write.

Douglass had an obvious want for knowledge and understanding, which he clearly fought for through his autobiography. He was taught the alphabet and how to spell at a young age by his master’s wife. However, his teachings were put down when his owner told his wife that there’d be no fit for him if he learned how to read. Douglass soon started to realize that if he wanted his freedom he’d have to learn to read. Being told not to learn only made him want to learn more so that one day he will gain the respect, knowledge, and freedom he deserved. He even used bribes to have young boys teach him to write. His want for education was very strong, and that’s where he uses his desire to his advantage in the writing style of his self written life story. He tells his story as if we were alongside him the whole way learning how he put each little teaching he learned together like a puzzle to make one big magnificent masterpiece at the end when he finally gained his freedom. As Douglass continued to gain knowledge, he gained more character and found himself to not be just a slave but a human being, a valuable and important man who wanted to make a difference in the way he

Frederick Douglass’s education was similar to slaves who had self-educated their self. At first, Frederick was taught by his master’s wife Sophia Auld. However after some time and multiple orders from her husband, she ended it. Frederick’s education was now into his own hands. His master’s views on a slave receiving

Douglass found out education was the key to success and freedom so his determination to

I felt assured that, if I failed in this attempt, my case would be a hopeless one—it would seal my fate as a slave forever. I could not hope to get off with anything less than the severest punishment, and being placed beyond the means of escape.” (Douglass 92). Douglass's courage ended up rewarding him because he was able to become liberated, spread the truth about slavery and give him knowledge about how the world around him sees slavery. Therefore, Frederick Douglass's stance on education is that education is a right that should be given to everyone because it helps people realize their self-worth and achieve true

Throughout this excerpt from his autobiography, Frederick Douglass constantly refers to the importance of Education and Literacy. He continuously details not only that education represented power, but also that an educated and literate slave would be dangerous in the eyes of the slave-loving southerners. Education all throughout time has represented knowledge, and knowledge is seen as power, both of which could easily corrupt someone, hence why slave owners chose to keep slaves in the dark in regards to education. Douglass argued that education was seen as the key to success and free thoughts, however, both were luxuries unknown to a slave unless they took matters into their own hands.

Since slaves were not allowed schooling, illiteracy was very common for African Americans slaves. For many people not accustomed to slavery, it was believed that slavery was simply a state of natural being. People believed African Americans were inherently incapable of residing in their society and consequently should live as laborers for white slave owners. Enforcing illiteracy among children deprived them of their necessary morality and ethics. Southern slave owners used this to their advantage control how the remainder of the country viewed slavery. If slaves were illiterate, they were incapable of telling their side of slavery. Douglass is saying that knowledge is key to winning against slavery. His quote, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man” (Douglass) describes his transformation as a slave with little knowledge and education to a man who has become very knowledgeable and educated to beat slavery. Douglass uses knowledge as the road to his freedom. He seeks knowledge and education to help slaves voice the wrong doings slaveholders are bringing upon blacks. Douglass helps slaves discover their selves not as slaves but as men instead.

After reading this story i found in the story Douglass was smart to realized that slavery was wrong on the enslavers put them thru and. After learning things he finally realized. That slavery was wrong and realized how the conditions they were in how they treated them.But auld wanted to teach him how to read and teach him so in the story. He realized how good that he had crowed up realizing that there is a whole lot of slave that had it hard realizing that slavery was bad and you could better of being a animal.

As soon as Douglass pieces together what Mr. Auld was saying he recognizes that “What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was to me a great good, to be diligently sought; and the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn.” (Douglass 38). This instant illustrates one of the first climaxes of the narrative. One statement made by Mr. Auld so greatly impacted Douglass by giving him a new sense of hope and will to succeed in obtaining his freedom. Douglass pulls out the positive in this experience, that Mr. Auld accidentally shared with him the power that comes with education. “In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly aid of my mistress. I acknowledge the benefit of both” (Douglass 39). Douglass learned to read not only in thanks to his kind mistress, who willingly taught him to read, but also to his cruel master whose rage towards Douglass learning to read and write generated him to give Douglass the knowledge he wanted to keep from him to begin with. The lesson given to him by his master about education was far more important than even the lesson’s on learning to read. Douglass’s use of chiasmi takes this climax to the

When Douglass moved to Baltimore his mistress started to teach him, but she was quickly told to stop by her husband because knowledge would make Douglass “no longer fit to be a slave”. Douglass then realizes what he was just given and he says, “From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.”

Douglass explains the way they were treated and talked about. “ The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness” (Faigley page 384) Any mother with tender hearts would be moved by those words. He persuades people to side with him, and feel for him. He wants people to be upset by his words so that things will get changed.

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass, he tells his own personal story about what it was like to live as a slave. While living through the horrors of slavery, Douglass manages to educate himself, by teaching himself to read with the help of few. As Douglass matures, life only gets harder. However, his education brings him hope. Not only does Douglass read of abolition, giving him hope, he also learns the importance of his education. Frederick Douglass discovers that education is the key to the freedom of his people through realizing the inevitable power gap is created by ignorance.

In Frederick Douglass’s narrative, “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”, he speaks of how he gained his education. He discusses who helped him and who discouraged him from getting an education. He mainly taught himself how to read and write, but he would have been nothing without the help of one of his master’s wife, Mrs. Auld. This narrative has shown that even the slightest education can be very abundant and meaningful. Through this essay it becomes evident that education is only a privilege.

For a child not knowing the day that’s supposed to be the most joyous day of the year couldn’t of been very easy but those are just some of the things slaves were deprived of sadly. Douglass in his narrative includes many instances involving the cruelty and punishments of slaves not only taken place but how they had began to become institutionalized through things that are supposed to grant them freedom. He’s referring to things such as politics, religion, and social practices that were enabling people to have their way with slaves and treat them as if they weren’t human beings ( paragraph 3). Not being a child anymore and as naive Douglass began to understand the unfair treatment he and many other colored people in his community were being dealt with. Later he had increasingly began hearing the word “ abolitionist” around town and thoughts of running away and gaining freedom seemed to be the only thing on his mind( paragraph 3 ).