Narrative Of The Life -Douglass

Book Quote:

“if you teach a n----r… there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of not value to his master…. I now understood … the white man’s power to enslave the black man” (Douglass 2086).

Internet Quote:

“he realizes that the ability of powerful whites to control slaves comes not so much from physical control as it does from mental domination. As long as whites can keep slaves ignorant, they can control them” by Yahoo Education Cliff Notes

Brief Summary:

Frederick Douglass, a born slave, taken from his mother early in the story, is unaware of who is his father and shares their awful treatment, their punishments, and the unfairness. He is sold to another farm before he goes to Baltimore. It is when he is about eight is when he is sent to Baltimore, as a slave to start working as one, that he sees the light, the hope of another life rather than forever be a slave. When he arrives at Baltimore, his mistress, not knowing how to act as a slave owner, starts to teach him how to read. Though this is soon stopped, it was what triggered him to continue, knowing the possibility of it leading him to his freedom. He was not badly treated there but was forbidden to learn. However whenever he had a chance he was reading newspapers, books, practicing writing with people in a tricky manner. He is however sent back Colonel Lloyd’s plantation that he works as a slave does, and is broken by it. He final however fights back, restoring his confidence that he can find a way to get his freedom. Later he makes a plan to runaway but is caught with others but is sent to back to Baltimore, works a while until he finally makes his second attempt to runaway and succeeds. Throughout this story he is around Christian people who are preached to beat their slaves and torment them, making it seem they are doing the lords work in doing so.

Your Ideas:

Born a slave, never believing there was hope in becoming free, he was kept ignorant of how he could rebel from this slavery future. They were meant to know nothing only to work. By reading they would know what was going on, try to have an impute in the world, leading to them just as knowledgeable as white men, making them seem equal. The white folks would also see their jobs given to cheaper black men to do the same job (sort of like now with work going overseas). Not to mention if they knew how to write then slaves could write a free pass for themselves as Frederick did. The south were going to lose their slaves, meaning their fortune like Colonel Lloyd would because of his cheap labor. Education was the key to freedom and possibly to the end of slavery (since it wouldn’t work when everyone is educated, giving them a chance for a better life). It amazes me how they were kept in the dark, never having a actual thought on how the slave-owners kept them under control, at least Frederick didn’t until Mr. Auld discusses it with his wife in front of him. Slaves just accepted that they were meant for that life and no way to escape it except to die, as many did choose to. If only they knew there was the north, a place that they could run to for freedom, they could at least die trying instead of just giving up but ignorant as they were they probably didn’t even know which way was north nor did they know that is what any different than the south.