Knowledge About Slavery example essay topic

Frederick Douglass was a man who was born into slavery. His mistress taught him how to read, because she never had a slave before. Frederick Douglass describes her as "a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings". All this had changed when her husband found out that his wife was teaching the slave how to read.

He told his wife that if she gives him an inch, he will take an ell, and that reading would only make him discontented and unhappy. After some time, all of what the master had said, became true. Frederick Douglass described learning the abc's from his mistress was the inch, and now he has taken the ell. He would take lessons from his white friends outside, and paid them with bread. Sometimes he would challenge them by saying that he writes better than them.

He would write what he knows and whatever the other boys wrote, he studied it. After reading anything he could, he gained knowledge about slavery and how immoral it was. He felt sick at the knowledge he had gained, and for knowing his unfortunate position. He wished to die. His constant thinking about his position tormented him. He noticed that what his master had said to his wife came true.

"As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out". He learned to read and write, and there was no going back. He couldn't help but notice the evil of slavery and its consequences all around him. Douglass also notes how his mistress became a different person, and uses her as an example to show how slavery can affect someone's personality.

"Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear."Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one f tiger-like fierceness". Douglass knew even before learning to read and write that slavery was immoral. But before he only felt it, and now he can express his feeling with words, and explain it to himself which only brought pain.

Throughout the Narrative, Douglass shows the reader how horrible slavery is and how it can affect the mind of people. He shows us how painful it is by explaining it to us and giving us examples. Even though his words somewhat illustrate the pain and injustice, we will never understand the real pain that he himself along with other slaves went through. A World of Ideas, sixth edition, essential readings for college writers Lee a. Jacobus copyright 2002.