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Knowledge is freedom - narrative of the life of fredrick d.

 

An education helps the slaves gain knowledge of the injustice of slavery and proves to them that they are human beings rather than slaves. "Words provide access to the power of communication, and the route to long-term control of the message is through literacy" (Morgan 76) writes Professor Winifred Morgan of Edgewood College. Douglass is able to free himself through his own self-education and begins work on the freedom of all slaves. Once slaves are educated they come to hate their masters and cannot escape without facing great danger.
             During the narrative, Douglass shows the disagreement between the fact that slaves are human beings and the fact that the slave owners treat them as property. Despite where the slave's families are located, slaves are frequently passed between owners. Often times, the slaves are treated as if they are animals. Douglass states, "Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep and swine" (Douglass 48). In which case, slaves are valued by their performance of labor and work ethics. He portrays the dehumanization of slaves as heartless and illogical actions. .
             Men appear as full characters in the Douglass" narrative; on the other hand, women do not. They only appear in sections of the book where graphic images of slaves are displayed. For example, Aunt Hester and Henny come into view in scenes that illustrate their masters punishing them. These views of abused women in the narrative are used to inflict outrage and sorrow in the readers mind. It also presents the abnormality of slavery.
             Actual evidence of the slave's emotional misery is the songs they sing. The songs are difficult to understand and Douglass does not do so until he becomes gains an education. As Douglass has noted, "I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear" (Douglass 24).


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