File:Life and times of Frederick Douglass (1882) (14756300096).jpg

Identifier: lifetimesoffrede1882doug (find matches)
Title: Life and times of Frederick Douglass
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895
Subjects: Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 Antislavery movements Slavery
Publisher: Hartford, Conn. : Park
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
Of course he forbade her to give me any
further instruction, telling her in the first place that to do so
was unlawful, as it was also unsafe ; "for," said he, "if you
give a nigger an inch he will take an ell. Learning will spoil
the best nigger in the world. If he learns to read the Bible
it will forever unfit him to be a slave. He should know noth-
ing but the will of his master, and learn to obey it. As to
himself, learning will do him no good, but a great deal of
harm, making him disconsolate and unhappy. If you teach
him how to read, he'll want to know how to write, and this
accomplished, he'll be running away with himself." Such
was the tenor of Master Hughs oracular exposition; and it
must be confessed that he very clearly comprehended the
nature and the requirements of the relation of master and
slave. His discourse was the first decidedly anti-slavery lec-
ture to which it had been my lot to listen. Mrs. Auld evi-
dently felt the force of what he said, and like an obedient
wife, began to shape her course in the direction indicated by
him. The effect of his words on me was neither slight nor
transitory. His iron sentences, cold and harsh, sunk like
Text Appearing After Image:

Mrs. Auld Learning Him to Read.

THE EFFECT ON HIM. 91
heavy weights deep into my heart, and stirred up within me
a rebellion not soon to be allayed. This was a new and
special revelation, dispelling a painful mystery against which
my youthful understanding had struggled, and struggled in
vain, to wit, the white mans power to perpetuate the enslave-
ment of the black man. Very well, thought I. Knowl-
edge unfits a child to be a slave. I instinctively assented to
the proposition, and from that moment I understood the
direct pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I
needed, and it came to me at a time and from a source whence
I least expected it. Of course I was greatly saddened at the
thought of losing the assistance of my kind mistress, but the
information so instantly derived to some extent compensated
me for the loss I had sustained in this direction. Wise as
Mr. Auld was, he underrated my comprehension, and had
little idea of the use to which I was capable of putting the
impressive lesson he was giving to his wife.

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