Frederick Douglass Response Paper

This excerpt is from his greater autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)” should remain a credible source. The overall organization of this excerpt is shown as a chronological sequence of events. Douglass was born a slave in Maryland 1818, where he learned to read and write. Later, he escaped to New York, and shortly after took a lead in the abolitionist movement. In this excerpt Frederick Douglass depicts his life as a young slave going through unconventional ways to learn how to read and write without formal education. He then goes on to explain how his view changed about the world he was living in since he became a literate slave. He soon speaks of the power of knowledge and how it forever changed him. Douglass …show more content…
Through this excerpt you see the dedication to becoming more educated even though everything was against him. “My mistress used to go to class meetings…and leave me to take care of the house…I used to spend the time in writing…” It shows the strength and courage that Douglass had. Since he had to struggle to educate himself, his story makes it remarkable to those who take being educated for granted as well as those trying to become educated. The intended audience for this excerpt was most likely former slaves or still slaves. It is so heavily connected to the hardships of slavery and overcoming those specific hardships, Douglass portrays this as the before and after. He wants them to see his struggle and realizes that he has already blazed the trail, he just needed them to follow his …show more content…
His pride shines through from how he clearly feels from being able to accomplish such enormously noble skills. You are able to tell specifically when he begins to talk about all the clever ways he was capable of getting people to teach him to read and write, without people noticing it, “The plan which I adopted, …was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street…and…I converted (them) into teachers.” A main lesson in this excerpt, is “ignorance is bliss” shown through, “…I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity.” He was depressed to some extent; with his education came knowledge of what was actually happening to his people. “It (freedom) was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition.” He was finally learning the real injustices that were happening every day. However, it made him even more determined to his cause because through his reading he realized that “freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever” meaning that the thought of having freedom was now forever rooted in his head, and as hard as he tried, it would never be