Moreover, in his literacy narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass stresses the importance literacy renders in his understanding of the concept of slavery and his escape to freedom from …show more content…
Furthermore, education among slaves became a privilege never granted to those enslaved, but to those who were white and free, contradicting slaves and any form of knowledge. Douglass therefore figured that he would never escape the predetermined life or fate he possessed. However, by the discovery of education’s importance on the fault of his slave master, Douglass realized the only way to escape from persecution on the basis of race and cultural ideologies was knowledge: “ I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty—to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man … From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom … I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read” (20). Relatively, Douglass’ escape to freedom is subsequent to the exposure of a slave master’s true power and ability to control slaves. Additionally, Douglass regards this event as the sole moment his ambition to read and gradually escape began, no matter the cost or time it takes for him to achieve his “fixed purpose.” Education was not seen by Douglass as a lack, but rather a necessity if he desired the achievement of escaping and obtaining freedom. Douglass went from a naive and unknowledgeble slave to a slave with a set goal and the knowledge