Frederick Douglass
...ays for escape. Furthermore, by keeping a slave illiterate, the North would not get a view of slavery from the slaves prospective. In this, the South was actually controlling what the rest of the American’s really knew about slavery. The North could not be told of the slave’s side of the story if they were illiterate. In all of these ways, keeping a slave ignorant would make the best slave for a southern owner. Also the southern slave owners depict the North as being a poverty stricken place. The owners believe that if the slaves think the North is like this, they would be less compelled to espcape. For Frederick Douglass, his passage to freedom is essentially derived from his knowledge gained as a slave. For a slave to escape, he or she must pursue knowledge and education to find a path to freedom. While on the plantation, Douglass was not literate and did not really have a reason to escape. It was not until he was taken to the city that he became literate. For a slave to escape, he or she must pursue knowledge and education to find a path to freedom. Douglass essentially realizes that knowledge and education must be a passage to freedom when he is at Hugh Auld’s in the city. It is there where he receives his first lesson. It is not because of his lesson that he receives, but rather how Hugh Auld reacts when he realizes Douglass has been learning from his wife. When Douglass sees that Hugh does not want him to be educated, he recognizes that knowledge must be the passage to freedom. It is in the city that Douglass eventually becomes educated enough to pursue his dream of freedom. Auld shows Douglass that whites keep slaves illiterate to keep them as slaves and this is the way in which blacks may free themselves. Since Hugh Auld prevents Sophia Auld from giving Douglass anymore lessons, he takes it upon himself to teach himself. Douglass gains his freedom mostly by self education. He is very smart to trick young white boys into helping him learn. This was his first main tool outside of the Auld’s house to learning. He learned a few letters from the shipyards and from this he went to young boys and stated he could write more letters than the boy. Douglass would write the very few letters he knew and then the white boy would write down more than him. Douglass was very smart in doing this, because eventually he learned all of the letters from the boys. It was also at the Auld’s house that he would go through the old workbooks of Hugh’s boy and copy down his writing. Not only was Frederick able to learn to write, he had to have become good at forging, though it was never stated that he did. Douglass was continuing to learn in the city until his original owner died. Unfortunately after his owner died he had to go back to the plantation for awhile. It was there that he was sent to Covey, and almost lost hope for everything. Douglass states, “Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit.” He goes on to say “my natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed…” Finally Douglass was sent back to the city to Auld’s again. It was here that he finally received his final lessons in becoming knowledgeable enough to esca...