spoiling the slave (Foner 93). Mr. Auld felt very strong about this because he felt that it was unsafe and teaching a slave how to read would make him unmanageable. When Mr. Auld forbade Mrs. Auld to teach Douglass anything else, made Douglass became more eager to learn. In Baltimore was where Douglass began learning how to read and write with the help of poor white children that attended school. When he wasn't receiving secret lessons from them, Douglass was practicing on his own with any book or newspaper that he could find (Burt 15). While in there, Douglass learned a lot of things that many slaves would not have access to. Douglass saw being illiterate as being a major handicap for slaves because the whites would always have an upper hand (Huggins 119). Douglass believes without this knowledge, that slaves would be forever lost (119).
             At the age of twelve years old, the thought of being a slave for the rest of his life began to bother Douglass. Around this time Douglass started reading a book entitled "The Columbian Orator." This book had a lot of influence on Douglass's thoughts about the cruelty of slavery. This book is about a slave who tried to escape from slavery three times. In that dialogue there was an argument in behalf of the slave being smart and very impressive, and the conversation resulted in the slave being granted voluntary emancipation. In the same book Douglass read one of Sheridan's mighty speeches on behalf of Catholic emancipation, which gave him abnormal thoughts about his own soul. He felt that he had gained a new and powerful outlook on the rights of every man white or black (Preston 95). Although Douglass was gaining knowledge from what he was reading, he was also gaining hatred against those who enslaved him. Reading this book allowed Douglass to found his soul and gave him the extra push that he needed to recognize that slavery was an unjust and inhuman treatment. ...