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Miah Smith

Professor Wilkinson

History 1700

13 October 2021

Question #1

Knowledge is Power

Imagine if you did not know how to read, write, know your own birthday, or who your

parents were. Well, that’s the life Frederick Douglass lived. Douglass was a slave that escaped

and wrote a book about his experience. His autobiography is called Narrative of the Life of

Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. He did not know his exact birthday, but knew he was

born around 1818. In his life as a slave, he had multiple “masters.” One of his masters was

named Mr. Auld. While he was living with the Auld’s, Mrs. Auld taught him the alphabet and

how to spell. When Mr.Auld found out she was teaching Douglass, he stopped her. According to

Mr. Auld, knowing how to read would spoil the slave. He feared that literacy would endow

slaves with the knowledge to become free.

Mr. Auld believed that you should keep a slave without knowledge. He said that if you

taught a slave “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 no value to his master” (25). He thought

that if a slave gained more knowledge, they, would then learn how to run away, overpower and

disrespect their master, understand how mistreated they were, and that would “make him

discontent and unhappy” (25). Soon enough Douglass became unhappy and discontent after he

gained this knowledge of literacy.

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Mr. Auld’s statement unwittingly reveals to Douglass a path to freedom through literacy.

After Douglass overheard Mr. Auld’s statement, he was determined to learn how to read and

write. He did this through many different tactics. First, he would trade bread with the poor little

white boys in return for teaching him lessons. He said, “This bread I used to bestow upon the

hungry little urchins, who, in return would give me the more valuable bread of knowledge” (27).

Second, he learned to write was through one of his masters’ sons, Thomas. Thomas had a book

for school and Douglass would copy the letters from the book until he could get it to match

Thomas’ writing. Third, he learned how to write letters in a shipyard. The ship carpenters would

write on the timber so they could tell apart the different parts. And lastly, he would trick other

white boys on the streets to teach him how to write, “‘when I met with any boy who I knew

could write, I would tell him I could write as well as he.’ The next word would be ‘I don’t

believe you. Let me see you try it’” (29). Those are the ways he learned new things and new

letters.

Once Douglass learned how to read and write he became discontent, just as Mr. Auld had

suggested. Douglass got his hands on a book called “The Columbian Orator.” In that book, he

read about another slave and his master. The slave had run away three times, and on the third

time, the slave was retaken. He argued with his master, saying he deserved to be free. After

Douglass read about this argument, he realized how mistreated he was and became discontent.

Douglass said, “As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! That very discontentment which

Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and

sting my soul to unutterable anguish” (28). Douglass now recognized that being a slave and not

being free, was making him discontent and unhappy. He asked himself, why am I a slave, why

am I not free, he thought to himself that he deserved to be free just like is masters.
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Douglass’ discontent came to a head while he looked out at the ships on the Chesapeake

Bay. As he sat there watching these ships, he grew even more discontent. He was upset that the

ships were free, and he was not. He complained to the ships, “You are loosed from your

moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and I am a slave!” (38). This was the moment he

decided that he had had enough, and he was going to run away. He said, “I will run away. I will

not stand it. Get caught, or get clear, I’ll try it. I had as well die with ague as the fever. I have

only one life to lose” (39). In this moment, looking out at the ships, Douglass determines to

become free or die trying.

Mr. Auld was right in his thinking, that if a slave learned how to read or write, he would

then learn how to be free. Literacy aided Douglass’ escape from slavery. He was emboldened to

make an escape. With literacy, he knew how to read signs, dates, and how to map-out his escape.

In his book, he talks about his escape, “How I did so, —what means I adopted, —what direction

I travelled, and by what mode of conveyance, —I must leave unexplained, for the reasons before

mentioned” (57). He does not say exactly how he escaped, because he did not want the

slaveholders to find out and prevent other slaves from escaping. He was hoping that other slaves

could gain the knowledge he had and manage to escape slavery.

Douglass shows us that literacy was, the key to freedom. With literacy, Douglass realized

how bad he was being treated and he knew he deserved better which made him discontent which

helped him to manage to escape. This book is applicable to me today because it is important to

read for knowledge and success. In this generation, most kids, teenagers, and young adults don’t

really read. People are all too busy on our phones and scrolling through social media; instead of

reading a good book, article, newspaper, etc. This book has taught me that I am lucky to be able
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to read and that I should take advantage of it and read more. Not only should I take advantage of

the ability to read but everyone should be taking advantage of it too.

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Work Cited

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

Boston Publisher, 1845.