There is a correlation between the ‘bondage of the mind’ and the ‘bondage of the body’ in regards to slavery. Therefore, slavery and education were incompatible with each other (p. 22). Slave owners felt it was imperative to shield slaves from having an ethical and intellectual vision. Therefore, destroying the power of reason, starving their minds, and causing slaves not to perceive the inconsistencies in slavery. Slave owners feared that if their slaves learned to read or write, they would feel liberated mentally, in turn causing them to yearn and aspire to be freed physically. Mr. Auld alleged that learning would spoil the best black man in the world and that if you taught him how to read than there would be no keeping him (p.20). Frederick
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Slaves would go to the Great House Farm to get their monthly allowance, which consisted of food, clothes, and one pair of shoes. Everything given to them did not exceed seven dollars, yet some slaves would make seven to nine dollars a week tilling and working the fields. However, slaves would sing songs about the Great House Farm, such as “I am going away to the Great House Farm! O, yea! O, yea! O!” The songs were a testimony of the anguish of slavery and a prayer to God for the deliverance from chains (p.8). There was a misconception in the north that the slaves sang these songs because they were content and happy. Though, Douglass, a slave said they sang when they were most unhappy (p.9). Slaves may have sung on the way to the Great House Farm because at that moment they had time to contemplate their lack of worth to the slaveholders. Sure, the slaves received new clothing from the Great House Farm, but it was also a time away from their masters where they could be poor their souls out in words and song. The time away from their masters made them question slavery and the dehumanizing character of slavery. The slaves worked hard for their masters all month long, but they had to travel miles to receive less than a week 's worth of allowance in the form of necessities and not the luxuries their masters took for
Slaves would go to the Great House Farm to get their monthly allowance, which consisted of food, clothes, and one pair of shoes. Everything given to them did not exceed seven dollars, yet some slaves would make seven to nine dollars a week tilling and working the fields. However, slaves would sing songs about the Great House Farm, such as “I am going away to the Great House Farm! O, yea! O, yea! O!” The songs were a testimony of the anguish of slavery and a prayer to God for the deliverance from chains (p.8). There was a misconception in the north that the slaves sang these songs because they were content and happy. Though, Douglass, a slave said they sang when they were most unhappy (p.9). Slaves may have sung on the way to the Great House Farm because at that moment they had time to contemplate their lack of worth to the slaveholders. Sure, the slaves received new clothing from the Great House Farm, but it was also a time away from their masters where they could be poor their souls out in words and song. The time away from their masters made them question slavery and the dehumanizing character of slavery. The slaves worked hard for their masters all month long, but they had to travel miles to receive less than a week 's worth of allowance in the form of necessities and not the luxuries their masters took for