Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass: Summary

Why would slaveholders want ignorant slaves?

Born a slave in 1818, Frederick Douglass decided to live as a free man at an early age. Setting his mind on learning to read and write because he was convinced that education and knowledge would afford him a better life. The lack of education or illiteracy was the method most used by slaveowners to maintain a system of slavery. Thus, driving Douglass to educate himself. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is Douglass’ written illustration of the life and time of the American slave. The powerful narrative vividly addresses the ignorance of slaves as a primary tool used by slaveowners to maintain control. Douglass skillfully takes the reader through a detailed account of the cruel inhumane system of abuse of black people. He chronicles his life at the risk of his own death and shares the awful imagery of his American experience to bring awareness to those blind to the pain slaves endured. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he shares how Ignorance is a deeply rooted method of controlling the American slave, particularly by the loss of identity, lack of literacy, and the harsh consequences of knowledge.

Loss of Identity

A slave had no real concept of time or dates. Slaves were not allowed the fundamental knowledge of real-world facts, like knowing the year of their birth. The inability to celebrate birthdays disconnects apart of their culture. Ultimately resulting in a stolen identity. Douglass was born a slave and was not aware of his own age. Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, but could only guess the time of his actual birth. He estimates that he was born in 1817. A date that was later corrected to 1818. Not only did the slave not know their birthday but often had no knowledge of their parents. Making the slave feel subhuman, like property as the slaveholder considered them. Douglass introduces himself in the beginning of his Narrative by saying he does “not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday.” Douglass goes on to say there are few slaves that have even basic information about their origin or who they are. What we know as a common right is seen as a privilege of intelligence not given by their slave owners. Douglass further reiterates that it “is the wish of most masters… to keep their slaves thus ignorant.” It is the slaveowners whipping and beating of their slaves that prevent the slaves from dreaming of even these basic human rights. The slave is made to believe that having any form of intelligence only causes more discontent among the slaves. Another profound thought Douglass shared is how his lack of knowledge about himself affects his treatment. As a slave as he was “not allowed to make such inquiries… he deemed such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent and evidence of a restless soul.” He is clever in his explanation of how the slaveowner wouldn’t answer any questions regarding the origin of the slave. Such requests would label them as “trouble-making” and subject them to more inhuman treatment by being beaten into a submissive slave. So, the slaves’ desire to have basic knowledge of who they are would be consistently denied. Even though every other human being had this basic knowledge, slaveowners somehow used this as yet another way to keep their slaves content. Ignorance is the tool responsible for the slaveowners' successful oppression and ability to profit from the slaves’ free labor.

Lack of Literacy

Douglass refers to another successful tool of ignorance being the slaves’ lack of ability to read and write. He recalls how he resisted the very institution of slavery in his desire to learn how to read and write. Which was a major fear of slaveowners. They feared if their slaves learned to read and write, they feel less like a slave and more like a white man and unfit for being a slave. Meaning the slave would realize he was equal and resist his slaveowners' attempts to continue to enslave him. Douglass said, 'The more I read the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers.' Douglass goes on to share that learned to read and write made him see everything around him differently. He began to see things through the lens of a free man and not as a slave. He then began to envy for the illiterate slave because he now felt burdened by this new knowledge and the understanding its depth.”

Douglass was taught to read by Captain Auld’s wife, Sophia. She would eventually become just as ruthless as her husband. In his narrative Douglass shared how he used this to his advantage after he is forbidden from reading, “nothing seemed to make Sophia Auld angrier than to see me with a newspaper. She seemed to think here lay the danger.” The inability for a slave to read and write implants a belief that they are no more than cattle. Sophia is ultimately intimidated by Douglass’s intelligence and fears he will no longer believe in the lies of his oppressor and begin to behave as a thinking man. Slaves lost ignorance is a real danger for both the slaveowner and the slave. The slaveowners risk financial demise because of the potential loss of free labor. The slave risks their lives because of the determination of those that benefit from his ignorance.

Consequences of Knowledge

Because of Sophia, there is no avoiding the new path of knowledge and the challenges that come with it. As stated, “the first step had been taken. Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell.” Douglass possesses a strong determination to eradicate his ignorance. He understands he has been given a gift that isn’t afforded very many slaves and not all of those that receive this knowledge use it to get themselves out of slavery and build a life as free men. No matter the consequences, Douglass is persistent in using his newly gained ability to read and write to not only help himself but also others like him. Continuing to progress with his literacy, Douglass is made more aware of the efforts to prevent him from having it “as I read and contemplated the subject behold! that very discontentment that Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish.” He now understands how knowledge is seen as a transfer of power after witnessing his teacher turn against him for learning what she had taught him in secret. Douglass doesn’t know what comes next or even what to expect from his increase of intelligence. However, it is clear that his illiteracy is a major tool used by slaveowners to keep slaves ignorant and oblivious to the world outside the scope of the plantation. Douglass learned that the root of the fear slaveowners held for educating their slaves was in giving them a cause for rebellion.

The harsh consequences of knowledge for Douglass begin with him no longer being able to bear even the thought of remaining a slave. Becoming literate was a life-changing event without it he would have most likely died a slave like so many others before him. Douglass goes on to share the details of these consequences in an inspiring account of his escape from of slavery and his confrontation with Mr. Covey.

Because Douglass could read and write, he is sent to Baltimore to live under the control of Mr. Covey. A slave owner is known for breaking stubborn slaves into submission. Douglass considers this to be the darkest time of his life, “During the first six months, of that year, scarce a week passed without his whipping me. I was seldom free from a sore back”. Not truly broken but doing as he was told until Douglass confronts Covey. Douglass realizing who he was and with newfound confidence stood up and defended himself. Fighting back against the oppression of cruel living conditions and deprivation of any kind of humanity. “It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood, and inspired me again with a determination to be free.” Ultimately, the confrontation with Mr. Covey was the final step toward freedom. However, it was the failure to remain ignorant that was the catalyst for his freedom. Douglass rewrites his story through his acquired knowledge and quest for freedom.

In Conclusion

Many Black people today are still suffering from the success of the slaveowners in keeping the slave ignorant. Slaves were conditioned to believe that inhumane treatment and being a slave was their purpose in life. This mindset continues today in the minds of many African American people living in fear of systemic racism. The inability to fully participate in society and the only opportunities afforded them are as workers for the white people. This is Why would slaveholders want ignorant slaves. To strip the slave of their heritage, culture, and self-esteem. The strategic alignment of the laws to prevent the education of the slave would ultimately keep them dependent on their oppressor. A slave that knows his identity and knows how to read, write and think for themselves is no longer a slave. Ignorance is a high virtue in a human-chattel; and as the master studies to keep the slave ignorant, the slave is cunning enough to make the master think he succeeds. This is exactly what Douglass did to gain his freedom, used the very thing that the slaveowner held to be the highest virtue, Knowledge!

Works Cited

1. Douglass, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. 1855. New York: Dover Publications, 1969. Print.
2. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. 1845. Boston: Antislavery Literature Project, 2005. Print.
3. Gottesman, Ronald. Frederick Douglass. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Gen. Ed. Nina Baym. 6th ed. Vol. B. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003. 2029-2127. Print.
4. Olney, James. I Was Born ‘: Slave Narratives, Their Status as Autobiography and as Literature. The Slave’s Narrative. Eds. Charles T. Davis and Henry Louis Gates. Oxford University Press, 1985. Print