Fighting For Destiny
Imagine what it would be like being beaten almost everyday. Forced to lie in a pool of your own blood, blood so fresh from the vein that its warmth took away the chill of the cold morning air. This is the life of a slave, the life of the oppressed. This is the life that Frederick Douglass, a slave from Maryland, was forced to endure before he courageously made his escape to the north. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was published by Douglass after he escaped to his freedom. His biography demonstrates how important an education was to Douglass, and the dangerous lengths he went to in order to get it. The education that Douglass acquired for himself was the sole factor that allowed for his dream of freedom to come about.
Douglass was born a slave in Tuckahoe, Maryland approximately 1817. I say approximately because a slave's age was not considered an important issue to slave owners.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass portrait
English: Portrait of Frederick Douglass as a young...Thus Douglass had "no accurate knowledge of [his] age, having never seen any authentic record containing it," (47). Because Douglass was a slave for so many years he is able to portray in great detail the differences in slaveholders; from severe acts of cruelty to sincere acts of kindness by those who helped Douglass learn and understand new things.
One of the strongest motivating forces for Douglass to further his education came from the mouth of one of his former oppressors. Mr. Auld, a former master of Douglass' said, "if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an mile, and that to educate the slaves will only make them discontent and unhappy" (78). Although Mr. Auld's words were spoken in hatred, he was correct in his assumption. Once Douglass began to acquire an education...