Frederick Douglass Slave Rebellion Essay

From the reading of Fredrick Douglass, The Native of Frederick Douglass, the writer himself exposes the reader to the life of the slave and some of the things that had to endure during this era of history. Douglass, African American, made a huge impact on the people during the nineteenth In this reading, it also reveals some of the methods that slaveholders would use to keep the slaves submissive. The goal of this writing to name and reflect on the diffferent ways that the slavehholders used to keep their slave submissive. You will learn about two of the ways that slave holders used.

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave written by Frederick Douglass, the author asserts that slaves were treated no better than livestock. Douglass supports his claim by giving examples of the hardships he endured while living as a slave. Douglass’s purpose is to connect with the reader on multiple levels in order to abolish slavery. Based on the text, Douglass is writing to people with the power to achieve his goal of abolishing slavery. Douglass, a former slave, experienced the mistreatment of slaves to the worst degree.

In the ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Frederick Douglass was a slave that was determined to become free from slavery. And eventually he did accomplish that goal, while ultimately becoming an abolitionist archivist and set off to abolish slavery at the end. Douglass wanted nothing more to be free, but something else was equally important was: literacy. As a slave this fundamental tool was against the rules, unlawful and unsafe.

In Frederick Douglass’s essay “Learning to Read and Write,” he uses his essay to get the point across by being educated in reading, he learns he is a “slave for life.” By that saying he realizes that if he ever becomes free from slavery, he will never be free in a state of mind. He is always going to be a slave, weather it would be master huge, or learning. So learning to read and understand the meaning of words he sees his problem of being able to read and have the ability to understand what happening around him; through “The Colombian Orator.” And after reading and understanding, no man should be a slave.

Once Mr. Auld finds that Mrs. Auld is teaching Douglass to read, Mrs. Auld is told that it is “unsafe” when a “slave [learns] to read” (Douglass 20). This experience shows Douglass that if he continues to become more educated, he will be treated more and more inhumanely because owners will think he is a “threat” to them. Even though being a “threat” merely means losing money at most, it is enough for slave owners to choose not to educate their slaves. While Douglass felt evocative of this experience, he realized that the experience showed him “the pathway from slavery” (Douglass 20). From that moment on, Douglass knew that at some point in his life, he would be a free man, no matter what it took.

Back then, slave owners wouldn’t educate slaves and allow them any kind of knowledge. They couldn’t learn to read and write, and they couldn’t know basic information about themselves, like their birth dates. When Douglass’ slave owner’s wife tried to teach Douglass, his slave owner stopped her, and said that a slave “should know nothing but to obey his master - to do as he is told to do.” His slave owner also mentioned how the ability to read would make him uncontrollable. Due to slaves being uneducated, they can’t really articulate and just think that all there is to life is to follow their master.

It was the slave owners job to make slaves feel unwanted, and worthless. Douglass soon realized that learning how to read and write would guide him from ignorance and darkness to knowledge furthermore brilliance. Through expanding his mind and attaining a full realization of his capabilities, he realized he was not meant to be a slave and endeavored to free himself from bondage. Suddenly became fit to be a knowledgeable slave; however, there was some down

While Mr. Auld criticizes his wife for her wrongdoings, Douglass discovers that “power over a white man would be through education” (32). Using specific diction of the word power, he enables the strength of intelligence and its valued quality. Witnessing Mr. Auld’s upsetting manner fabricates Douglass’s consciousness of education’s essential benefit to the captive world he is confined in. He discerns how much intelligence is admired by a white man, consequently their purpose for keeping their workers unintelligent. Slaveholders’ representation of an intelligent slave would only result in him being “unmanageable” (32) in their guidance and possibly put them in the same hierarchy as them, something they feared.

Fear of education displayed by past masters made Douglass consider the benefits of becoming literate. Douglass had hateful masters from the moment he was born. These terrible masters stripped the enslaved of their blood, energy, and their hope for freedom. As Douglass is slowly learning to read from Mrs. Auld, his master enters the room, degrades Douglass, and treats him as any other property. Mr. Auld fears education for slaves so much that he believes “If you teach that n***** how to read, there would be no keeping him.

Slaves obtaining knowledge or an education were then viewed as unmanageable. One can see that through Frederick Douglass’s gain of education; Slavery began to look more than an imprisonment and his mind would not cease to think. With this depressing state of mind, Douglass would begin to plot for ways to obtain his education. Despite living in a country were teaching slaves was unpardonable, Frederick Douglass began to incorporate various ways for his education. He would hide in a separate room and would be suspected by his mistress that he could be reading a book.

Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of

In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.

Human slavery requires ignorance, just as an individual’s freedom, from oppression, requires knowledge attained by education. To maintain order and control over slaves, slavery demands ignorant slaves; thus, keeping slaves ignorant prevents slaves from recognizing the empowering value of education and education’s ability to liberate slaves from the effects of ignorance. Frederick Douglass’s pursuit of education helped him discover the dark, hidden truths of slavery in his article, “How I Learned to Read and Write.” Thus, the pursuit of education inspires a desire for freedom. The desire to learn generates determination and motivation.

Education gives hope for Douglass’s life since he began to truly understand what goes on in slavery. As he figured out more about the topic, his self motivation poured out hope in his life. As Frederick saw an opportunity to become

Because of this, he successfully creates a contrast between what the slave owners think of and treat the slaves and how they are. Douglass says that slave’s minds were “starved by their cruel masters”(Douglass, 48) and that “they had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass, 48) and through education, something that they were deprived of, Frederick Douglass is able to open their minds and allow them to flourish into the complex people that they are. By showing a willingness to learn to read and write, the slaves prove that they were much more than what was forced upon them by their masters.