Review of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, near Hillsborough.


  He doesn’t know for sure of his age, he has seen no proof and his master


  will not inform him.   Most masters prefer for their slaves to stay


  ignorant.   He believes that he was around twenty-seven and twenty-eight


  when he began writing his narrative - he overheard his master say he was


  about seventeen years of age during 1835.   His mother, Harriet Bailey,


  was separated from him when he was an infant and she died when he was


  seven years old.   Frederick’s father was a white man who could have been


  his master but he never found out.


          Education was of utmost importance in his life.   He received his first


  lesson while living with Mr. and Mrs. Auld.   Sophia Auld, Frederick’s


  "mistress", was very humane to him and spent time teaching him the A, B,


  C’s.   After he mastered this, she assisted him in spelling three and


  four letter words.   At this point in his lesson Mr. Auld encountered


  what his wife was doing for Frederick and forbid her to continue.   He


  believed that "if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell" and


  continuing with "learning would spoil the best nigger in the world".


  The masters felt that an ignorant slave formed a choice slave and any


  beneficial learning would damage the slave and therefore be futile to


  his master.   His next step on the road to success was during his seven


  years living with Master Hugh’s family.   Frederick would make friends


  with as many white boys as he possibly could on the street.   His new


  friends would be transformed into teachers.   When he could, Frederick


  carried bread on him as a means of trade to the famished kids for


  knowledge.   He would also carry a book anytime he had an errand to run.


  The errand...