Frederick Douglass Research Paper

967 Words4 Pages

“All humans have the right to freedom, education, and equality” stated on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet, we allow African Americans to be tortured and have no freedom with no equality, and no education. Slavery is an institution where human rights are constantly violated. The barbaric treatment the slaves endured, rents the sole purpose of the UDHR. Due to these circumstances, slavery should be abolished and, slaves granted their freedom, education, and have an equal right to life. Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass was born into slavery. He became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time, advising presidents and lecturing to thousands on a range of causes, including women’s rights and Irish home rule. Douglass’…show more content…
In the narrative Douglass says “Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. To use his own words, further, he said, "If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master--to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now," said he, "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy." (Douglass) Douglass’s narrative shows how white slaveholders perpetuate slavery by keeping their slaves ignorant. At the time Douglass was writing, many people believed that slavery was a natural state of being. They believed that blacks were inherently incapable of participating in civil society and thus should be kept as workers for whites. The narrative explains the strategies and procedures by which…show more content…
Auld said all that negative stuff right in front of him. Douglass took all this information from Mr. Auld and made something out of himself, it gave a sense of pride that he had to continue to learn new things. Ad Fredrick Douglass got older he gained more and more knowledge. This information gave him the way out, to be free and educated. “I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty--to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it…What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was to me a great good, to be diligently sought; and the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn.” (Douglass) Douglass used the harsh words Mr. auld said to his advantage and that’s how he got to where he was, learning to read, making speeches in front of a higher authority and being

Frederick Douglass Research Paper
989 Words | 4 Pages
Frederick Douglass transformed his life from execrable slavery to freedom, by using his experiences and struggles throughout his life. Housing, education, and employment were the key to his success. Frederick Douglass has lived in many different homes and areas throughout his life. He was born a slave at Holme Hill Farm, in the name of Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, Talbot County, Maryland, around 1818. He lived with his grandmother until he was six. He then lived with Aaron Anthony, until
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Frederick Douglass Research Paper