Douglass' Freedom

             Having learned how to read and write, Frederick Douglass changed himself from another man's slave into a widely respected writer. This freedom was set forth by his luck in receiving a mistress, Mrs. Auld, who would begin Douglass' revelation of learning how to read and write. Reaching adulthood and fluency in English, Douglass' perception of freedom changed. As a child, he could not really explain all of what he experienced and how he felt about himself, as a slave, in his earlier slave days in such a way that those who read his autobiography would ever understand completely. But as he matured and developed his linguistic skills, the essence of his thoughts, and the level of understanding had transformed his ideas of freedom.
             Since birth, Frederick was immediately exposed to the harsh realities of slavery, which included being deprived of self-identity. "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it...it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant"(12). Forced to eat his meals of mush out of a trough, wearing nothing but a long, coarsely woven shirt, and being kept in complete mental darkness, Douglass was completely dehumanized even before he experienced the horrible violence of the slaveholders towards their slaves. Freedom was mentally shaped for slaves, as to prepare them for their long years of hard laborious service. Frederick was not allowed a family. Before her death, he rarely felt his mother's "soothing presence...tender watchful care" (13). During his childhood, Douglass would experience more freedom than what he would get for many years after. Freedom abruptly ended with his introduction to the infamous slave fields.
             At eight years old, Douglass left to Baltimore to live with a new family - the Aulds. In the 1800's, educational suppression was widely prac...

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Douglass' Freedom. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 15:59, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/74226.html