Literacy In The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

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Reading arouse the desire be a free man
Throughout the reading, of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, there are several themes that comes up from. One important theme is the power that man will have by literacy. Frederick, in his narrative, had the belief that education is the pathway to freedom. He believed that becoming a literate is the most powerful way to prove we are human, not sub human as the white society described black people. Literacy helped him to change his position in the master/slave relationship and moved him to become a free man.
When Frederick lived with the Aulds family, Mrs. Auld undertook the task of teaching him basic literacy. This continued for some time until Mr. Auld knew what was his wife doing. He instructed his wife to stop teaching the slave. From that moment the mistress changed her attitude toward Frederick and started treating him very roughly. Mrs. Auld started to copy how her husband was acting, and even more. She watched Frederick to make sure that he is not reading or there was no book in his hand. Frederick realized how important reading was by Mr. Auld 's angry reaction to his wife 's …show more content…

The land owners enslaved many Africans, men and women, and forced them to work in their farms and do different kind of tasks. Those slaves were working for many long hours and got nothing in return, just the food and the shelter. Slavery provided the cheapest way to meet the demand for labor in agriculture at that time. Slave owners kept their slaves busy performing the work in their farms and depriving them of knowledge and education. Frederick understood that knowledge and education are the weapons by which the white manage to keep the blacks as slaves and by which the blacks might free themselves. He came to this understanding when his master forbade his mistress to teach him and educate

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