Adevonte Johnson Johnson 1
Mr. Teel
Ap English II
9 Sep. 2013
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
In the book of Frederick Douglass “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” Douglass learns of knowledge of being helpful and harmful.
However, Douglass’s education or knowledge could be very helpful. “I now understood… the white man’s power to enslave the black man…[learning was] the pathway from slavery to freedom” (Douglass 42). Therefore, Douglass gaining his education it was very helpful to him. Douglass then set his sights on learning to write, which gave him not only one bonus but two! By Douglass knowing how to read and write it helped him tremendously plan his escape. Frederick Douglass’s patience and smartness, his plan to escape would only take years in the making to accomplish.
By Frederick Douglass gaining knowledge he outstood from the other slaves. “If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him, it would forever unfit him to be a slave” (Douglass). However, a slave having knowledge wouldn’t be any benefit to his master. A slave with knowledge would only make the master unhappy. Having knowledge as a slave isn’t normal, sooner or later Frederick Douglass could possibly out smart his master. Education gives Douglass an edge on his master, which is truly harmful for Douglass’s master.
Frederick Douglass set his sight on learning to read and write to set himself up closer to freedom, by his education given by his master only gave him a bigger edge. Douglass wasn’t
Johnson 2
any ordinary slave, he was a slave with knowledge, this outstood him more than enough, which was very harmful for his master. To sum it all up, with Frederick Douglass being the only slave with an education gave him a bigger gap to...