Narrative Essay on the Life of Frederick Douglass Essay

In the archives of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Frederick Douglass recounts his life of slavery and his eventual flight to freedom. When he was a chela he was placed in a household in which the naive mistress started to teach him to read. Her efforts were halted by her husband and young Douglass recalled his lecture on the reasons slaves should not be educated. However the brief lessons placed deep down Douglass the desire to continue to learn, by whatever means possible, to read and to write.He had disc overed that education and literacy was to be his pathway from slavery to freedom. Douglass illustrates that literacy is the most important asset a man can ac-quire if he is to strain life-changing goals. Douglass new ambition to become literate had both positive and negative effects. His new desire fill up him high hope and a fixed purpose and his life was fundamentally changed from that early time in life. His quest for literacy was fueled with confidence that his future life would be radically different and better at one time he had mastered reading and writing.However it was not without negative effects as well. The more he learned of slavery the more he hated his own condition and the slave-owners that created it. As his masters became sensible of his ability he was constantly watched as they tried to prevent him from reaching his goal. For a slave the path to literacy was very difficult. However the path to literacy led Douglass to consequences he could not have im-agined. An entirely new valet de chambre was opened for him, and with literacy came knowledge of a life that slaves had been denied.With literacy eventually came knowledge of religion and the great Abolition movement. The sterling(prenominal) consequence of literacy was freedom of the mind and freedom of thought, and literacy became for Douglass the tool with which he would become his own master. Literacy was for Douglass and new(prenominal) slaves a power which t hey had been denied. Ignorance and illiteracy were tools more powerful than the whip and chains, and were used effectively by the slave-owners to hold slaves in submission.The slave owners un-derstood this and feared literate and educated slaves who would now know there is no truth in the slave-owners belief that they should know nothing but to obey his master. Slave owners knew the desire for literacy would spread among the slaves and would be the essential method for their eventual freedom. It was a power the slave owners were not willing to give to their slaves. Douglass defines literacy not only by describing the obvious ability to read and write, but shows true literacy as the ability to witness and communicate thoughts, de-sires, and emotions.Douglass shows literacy as being the true bond between free men and the method to compound against slavery and oppression. Literacy unites man while ignorance and illiteracy keeps man isolated from the rest of the world. Although Narr ative was written over one hundred and sixty years ago it still serves as a valid proctor of the power of literacy, which remains the most important as-set a man can acquire. With literacy all things are possible, and without it the unskilled become slaves to ignorance.