Backbreaking labor, thundering voices, and lashing whips: the life of a nineteenth century slave. Frederick Douglass spent much of his life wearing little more than the chains of slavery. The South denied him the basic civil rights afforded to whites, and he was not given clothing enough to cover his naked body. He was treated no better than property. He ground through nearly every day of his abject life as a slave in "crouching servility."" Despite his condition, Douglass did not spend his free time idly sulking about his enslavement; rather, he educated himself. He showed the courage of character to free his mind from the shackles that physically entrapped him.
Teaching him but "to spell words of three or four letters,"" Mrs. Sophia Auld gave Frederick Douglass much more than the basis of an education: she instilled within him a yearning for knowledge. The reader recognizes Douglass's motivation by his rebellious words when he proclaims, "That which to him was a great evil was to me a great good."" These are the bold words of a man confident in his cause and righteous in his anger. Douglass's resolute sentences illustrate that he "set out with high hope- to learn more than how to work in a field and tend to his master. He elucidates his "desire and determination- through confident, succinct sentences. Douglass uses such tactics to strike the crux of the matter directly: the goal of his "invaluable instruction- was to avoid the "white man's power- by empowering himself. Douglass maintains composure and projects this empowered voice through a string of carefully-timed, balanced sentences.
Moreover, "no precaution could prevent- Douglass from acquiring the means of educating himself. In a shorter paragraph, he relates the difficulty he experiences due to his masters' paranoia of him learning to read. Douglass deftly changes the tone of the paragraph using "however- and clarifies that despite the impediments, he still took the initiative to learn how to read and write.
