How Did Frederick Douglass Become An American

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Frederick Douglass Rewrite What does a man with power and wealth want? More power and more money. Slave owners back then were mostly extremely affluent and their main sources of income came with the work of slaves. This made slaves extremely valuable. Slavers relied on the work of their servants to, in reality, live their flush lifestyles. Because of the value of keeping slaves and workers, slavers needed to keep their dominance. One of the main and most influential ways slaveholders kept this mastery over their bondsmen is by denying them the right to an education. Drivers knew that with an education, one obtains a certain awareness. Slave owners denied the slaves the opportunity to gain this awareness. Slaves knew what was happening to…show more content…
Even if they were freed, they had no tutelage, so it wouldn’t do them any good to be free, and they knew this. Douglass was different because he was able to get instruction. An education was, and still is, a monumental advantage, and Douglass realized this as he learned. Douglass states that “when I was around thirteen years old, and had succeeded in learning to read, every increase of knowledge, especially respecting to the free states, added something to the almost intolerable burden of he thought - ‘I am a slave for life’” (Douglass). Frederick is saying that the more he learned, the more he realized that if he doesn’t do something about the injustice of slavery, especially while reading about slavery and the free states, that he would in fact be a slave for life. While reading the Columbian Orator, he realized that “the dialogue and speeches were all redolent of the principles of liberty, and poured floods of light on the nature and character of slavery” (Douglass). This literary work showed Frederick that there are principles that everyone is required to have and follow. The act of slavery and all it entailed was mlt following these principles. Learning this gave Douglass the edge he needed to go
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