What gave white people the sense of superiority? Literacy was a right taken away from slaves by their oppressors. The slaves who worked on plantations where often times the most illiterate. They had one purpose, and one purpose only and that was to work from sunrise to sunset. Literacy was about as likely as freedom for a slave. If a slave learned to read and write it was often times done in secrecy, and if their masters found out about it they were punished severely. It was likely that a white child was smarter than the average slave. The slave owners went to any means necessary to make the slaves believe that they had it good on the plantation and they would be worse off anywhere else. The slaves may have been ignorant, but they knew they didn’t deserve what was being done to …show more content…
The more Frederick read the more he began to understand the true horror of his life. The truth of this knowledge made Frederick a resentful person, but he had every right to be. “It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity” (Narrative 54). Being able to understand the life he lived haunted him every day. It was as if the seed had been planted, but was given no water or sunlight to grow. Frederick began to recognize the difference between living on the plantation and being a city slave, which made him even more grateful for the time he spent in