Fredrick Douglass Paper

In the novel Fredrick Douglass writes that his new mistress appears to be warm and kind to him, teaching him how to read and write. But then she changes as a person and becomes cruel like all of the other slaveholders. When Fredrick moves in the Aulds, Mrs. Auld begins to teach Fredrick how to read and write. However Mr. Auld does not approve of this and orders his wife to stop at once. Fredrick learns that the slaveholders do not want to educate their slaves because they want to control them and keep them in order. Fredrick realizes that the only way he is going to succeed in life if he educates himself. This injustice is relevant in some countries today. One country in particular, North Korea, keeps education at a minimum so that the people don't try to escape their country. The government keeps total control over their people by not educating them enough so that they are not inclined to speak out against them. Fredrick also learns that slaves in cities are almost like freemen compared to slaves living in plantations. Their owners treat them much better and are sure to not appear cruel. Living with the Aulds for a while, Fredrick learns to read and write with the help of local children. Mrs. Auld became hardened with the idea of slavery to she discontinued teaching Fredrick. Douglass reads a book called The Columbian Orator, that contains dialogue between a master and a slave. In the book a master and slave debate about slavery until finally the master frees the slave. The book helps Douglass realize how slavery is unjust but there is really nothing that he could do about it. However his views change when he discovers what an abolitionist is and what antislavery means. Douglass thinks about escaping to the north. Fredrick eventually learns how to write by watching carpenters writing letters on lumber. After several years in Baltimore, Fredrick returns to the plantation after his master dies. The valuation of the slaves is humiliating, as they are inspected alongside the livestock. Douglass is assigned to Mrs. Lucretia Auld, who sends him back to Baltimore. After Douglass returns there, Mrs. Lucretia and Master Andrew both die, and the property is inherited by strangers The slaves are still not free and Douglass's grandmother is abandoned in a hut in the woods.