In his narrative, Douglass stated that slaveholders intentionally kept slaves ignorant of the basics facts of their life such as who their parents were and their date of birth. By withholding this information from the slave population, the slaveholders felt that it stripped the slave of his/her individual identity. It was also a common belief among slaveholders that teaching a slave to read and write would give him/her a sense of self-sufficiency, and eventually lead the slave to question his/her treatment; learn of what life was like outside of slavery, communicate with others, and plan revolts. The ignorance of reading and writing would also prevented them from being able to voice their opinions in written word, helped to stifle any thought
