They instruct others to be the way they are. For example, Mrs. Auld treats Douglass like a family member when he arrives but when her husband comes behind her and corrects her, she changes and treats him harsh like a slave. Douglass finds many of ways to escape this and keep his freedom without giving up. Douglass hears that education is not needed in a slave reminds him that he needs to be educated in order to be free. I can now visualize Douglass perspectives as he is recognized as an individual trying to gain knowledge without being whipped and harshly treated.
Looking back into our country’s history I’ve come to realized school is something that was not always so easily accessible by everyone. Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X are two perfect examples of people that were either not given the opportunity to learn or denied the opportunity to learn. Frederick Douglass was a man who was born a slave and not given the opportunity to go to school and learn to read and write. Douglass’ mistress had taught him to read and write but was prohibited from teaching him further more by her husband shortly after Frederick’s success in both reading and writing (143). When the mistress noticed her husband’s disapproval of her actions she started to act more violently and like a stereotypical slave owner.
He wanted to proof to his woman that he can do something heroic. He never considered my wife and family. He wanted me to live them in slavery and go alone to freedom. He thought because I am a slave of his father I have no love, emotions and brains. He had allowed me to go to freedom, but I had to do something heroic for my wife, just like he did to
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Chapter 1 quote 1: “I had therefore been, until now, out of the way of bloody scenes that often occurred on the plantation.” (Douglass, page 21) The basic standpoint on this quote is that he is explaining how he tries to avoid all confrontation on the plantation as much as possible, so he will not become a part of it. For example, he talks about how stayed on the opposite side of the plantation to avoid that kind of stuff. When he first saw it, it was all new to him so he was petrified. Another example is how in shock he was when he saw his master whipping his aunt. Anyone could tell by the way he spoke that that is a sight he wishes he could take back.
I am ver surprised that they did not suspect me first. It is hard being the only negro in town but I deal with it. I believe that the big fellow Lennie did not mean to hurt Curley's wife. I wish he would have stayed away from her. She was trouble and me and George tried to tell him.
You see knowledge is the same. It will help you at times to make decisions or find the truth, but at other times all that comes of it is confusion, hence Douglass’s dilemma. Being a slave, Fredrick Douglass was forbidden from learning to read or write. His first lessons came from his Mistress, who in the beginning was a kind woman, but time changes us all. She taught him how to read and by doing so Douglass sought new truths and powers.
Most masters had to learn how to become a slave owner, they had to learn the system, which most of the time meant that one must become a person of evil doing. Being a slave owners turned a good person into a bad person. A master was not allowed to be kind to his/her slave. They were not allowed to tech the slave anything or let them do as they pleased. “Master Hugh was amazed at the simplicity of his spouse, and, probably for the first time, he unfolded to her the true philosophy of slavery, and the peculiar rules necessary to be observed by masters and mistresses, in the management of their human chattels.” (Douglass, 95).
According to Northup some slaves were even, “Stripped and inspected more minutely.” Slaves had no rights and this was no way to treat a human being. Blacks are not animals but humans and should not have to go through these barbaric routines. Northup told a story of how a little boy was separated for his mother and sister when a man bought the boy and even with the cries and begging from his mother would not buy them to. The mother of the boy even, “Promised in that case to be the most faithful slave that ever lived,”stated Northup. Slavery is wrong and should not be tolerated in
Crispus Attuck, who was black slave, is known as the first martyr of the war. James Amistad Lafayette was an American spy in Britain and kept on updating Americans with all the British plans. He later on got emancipated by the General Assembly of Virginia in
Harriet Jacobs for instance used the thought of someday freeing her children to drive her throughout the book and decide on what is best for them as a whole, maybe not immediately but eventually. She views slavery as worse than death, thus she feels disgusted that she brought her children into the world of slavery, “It seemed to me I would rather see them killed then have them given up to his power.” (Jacob’s 68) Frederick Douglass on the other spectrum of slavery was a man who had no children, and never had to suffer the physiological abuse of rape, and sexual harassment, but this did not make his slavery or his journey to freedom any easier. But it seems as though the small tastes of freedom he had experienced in Baltimore were the driving motives for Frederick Douglass. He always had a desire for more, “The fact that he gave me any part of my wages was proof, to my mind, that he believed me be entitled to the whole of them. I always felt worse for having received anything; for I feared that the giving me a few cents would ease his conscience, and make him feel himself to be a pretty honorable sort of robber” (Douglass 108) It is this ongoing understanding by both characters that they are unique and deserve much more, as in Frederick Douglass’ case these samples of freedom he was given were not taken as a sign of improvement but instead a reminder that he was a man and deserved