The Genius of Fredrick Douglass
Fredrick Douglass was an African American slave in the eighteen hundreds who battled his entire life to become a free man, his narrative gave readers the chance to gain insight into what happens to slaves in their country. The narrative showed that he always had a burning will for knowledge because Douglass knew that having knowledge is freedom, and that is what he wanted. Fredrick is one of the great minds in the history of The United States unfortunately the society of the era held this great man back from being properly schooled. He knew that slavery was almost a game in a sense and that he had to wait until the right moment to make his move for freedom. Born around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland Fredrick …show more content…
For the slaves, they viewed this place being a heaven almost it was seen as the highest privilege in the community. These slaves enjoyed their walks to the house they often times sang songs showing their jubilation while also showing the their sadness. One song Douglass left is more of a chant than a song but goes like this “I am going away to the Great House Farm! O, yea! O, yea! O, yea!” with many other words mixed in, making the songs often hard to understand, but the signer knew exactly what he was feeling at the time. Douglass says that he viewed and heard the songs as more of a sad stance and often times “found him self in tears.” I believe when he says the previous quote Fredrick shows his genius in that song can bring joy to ones self but also bring the saddest emotions at the same time. Songs have lasting effects on one 's self, think back to your first kiss or first dance you can automatically bring those emotions of joy you were feeling then right to the forefront while on the other hand songs bring up sad emotions due to the fact it meant something to you and you do not have that something anymore. For me it is “The Boys of Fall” by Kenny Chensy, I listened to this song every Friday morning on game day only once while playing catch with my dad on the field. No longer having the ability to do this hurts, but brings me back to the times I will never …show more content…
Fortunately the same happened to this great man, he got transferred to a place with great promise. The new mistress Mrs. Auld was a first time slave owner and was not abusive like most, she taught him the Alphabet and how to spell words, unfortunately Mr. Auld found this out and stopped the teaching immediately, but like the saying goes “you give a man a fish he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime” was in full effect, Douglass took this ability and ran with it often practicing writing letters on trees and walls along with challenging local boys to see who could write the best. Learning how to read and write was a cardinal sin, whites viewed knowledge as a gateway to freedom, and for good reason. During the time leading up to the civil war abolitionist papers were being sent out across our young country hardly ever reaching the southern states due to the powers destroying them before they ever got into the slave 's hands; however Maryland is not in the deep south, so getting ahold of anti slave writings was not a hard task for Fredrick, the specific text read by him was The Columbian Orator. Slaveholders feared when they got into the hands of slaves that could read these paper 's ideas would spread like wildfire. The ideas of freedom often times caused slaves to try to escape or in extreme instances to
Fredrick Douglass was an African American slave in the eighteen hundreds who battled his entire life to become a free man, his narrative gave readers the chance to gain insight into what happens to slaves in their country. The narrative showed that he always had a burning will for knowledge because Douglass knew that having knowledge is freedom, and that is what he wanted. Fredrick is one of the great minds in the history of The United States unfortunately the society of the era held this great man back from being properly schooled. He knew that slavery was almost a game in a sense and that he had to wait until the right moment to make his move for freedom. Born around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland Fredrick …show more content…
For the slaves, they viewed this place being a heaven almost it was seen as the highest privilege in the community. These slaves enjoyed their walks to the house they often times sang songs showing their jubilation while also showing the their sadness. One song Douglass left is more of a chant than a song but goes like this “I am going away to the Great House Farm! O, yea! O, yea! O, yea!” with many other words mixed in, making the songs often hard to understand, but the signer knew exactly what he was feeling at the time. Douglass says that he viewed and heard the songs as more of a sad stance and often times “found him self in tears.” I believe when he says the previous quote Fredrick shows his genius in that song can bring joy to ones self but also bring the saddest emotions at the same time. Songs have lasting effects on one 's self, think back to your first kiss or first dance you can automatically bring those emotions of joy you were feeling then right to the forefront while on the other hand songs bring up sad emotions due to the fact it meant something to you and you do not have that something anymore. For me it is “The Boys of Fall” by Kenny Chensy, I listened to this song every Friday morning on game day only once while playing catch with my dad on the field. No longer having the ability to do this hurts, but brings me back to the times I will never …show more content…
Fortunately the same happened to this great man, he got transferred to a place with great promise. The new mistress Mrs. Auld was a first time slave owner and was not abusive like most, she taught him the Alphabet and how to spell words, unfortunately Mr. Auld found this out and stopped the teaching immediately, but like the saying goes “you give a man a fish he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime” was in full effect, Douglass took this ability and ran with it often practicing writing letters on trees and walls along with challenging local boys to see who could write the best. Learning how to read and write was a cardinal sin, whites viewed knowledge as a gateway to freedom, and for good reason. During the time leading up to the civil war abolitionist papers were being sent out across our young country hardly ever reaching the southern states due to the powers destroying them before they ever got into the slave 's hands; however Maryland is not in the deep south, so getting ahold of anti slave writings was not a hard task for Fredrick, the specific text read by him was The Columbian Orator. Slaveholders feared when they got into the hands of slaves that could read these paper 's ideas would spread like wildfire. The ideas of freedom often times caused slaves to try to escape or in extreme instances to