Fredrick Douglass was born into slavery to be owned as property. In his autobiography, A Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass allows us to see a firsthand experience of how it is to be bought and sold, owned by many different owners, and repress from any education. We will take a look at the different slave owners and how they treated their slaves, the difference between urban and rural areas, and how he overcame illiteracy.
The act of owning an individual is not beautiful. It requires one to oppress a free mind to stay enslaved. In the Fredrick Douglass wrote about all of his masters and overseers. Each has a different approach to maintaining their control over their subjects. Some embrace …show more content…
With the odds stacked up against Fredrick Douglass he had still managed to become a famous abolitionist, author, and statesman. He began his endeavor literary after leaving Colonel Lloyd plantation and going to Baltimore. His new mistress, Sophia, was kind hearted and began teaching Fredrick the Alphabet. After learning the alphabet they moved on to four letter words, however, her husband Mr. Auld found out what was happening and forbade her from progressing with her lessons. Mr, Auld argued, “…Learning will spoil the best nigger in the world. Now if you teach that nigger how to read there will be no keeping him, it will forever unfit him to be a slave he will become unmanageable and will be of no value to his master.” After this Sophia would no longer encourage education, however, she had already initiated an indestructible longing for knowledge. He would not let anyone break his spirit. To further his learning, he made friends with the poor white boys. He would carry bread to exchange for a lesson from his friend. His friends sympathized Fredrick’s situation. He wrote, “This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry lil urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge.” Fredrick would also challenge the other boys, saying that he could write better than them. He was then show off the little bit that …show more content…
When times seemed hopless he didn’t give up or show weakness. He embodies strength throughout the text. Fredrick wrote, “From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom." this text reveals the strong spirit that it took for Douglass to endure the most horrible, tragic situations. This strong, free spirit pulled him through the dehumanizing