How slaves were treated also depended on the religion of their masters. Douglass describes, "for all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst" (82). Religious slaveholders were crueler and seemed very fond of their whips. Although non-religious slaveholders may have worked their slaves just as hard, they usually gave better tools for the job and better meals. Treatment of slaves also differs in the city from that on the plantations. A slave from the city receives more food and clothing than those from the plantations. It was a happy day for Douglass when he left the Lloyd plantation. .
It was after Douglass's departure from Colonel Lloyd's plantation that he began his education. He was sent to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld in Baltimore where Mrs. Auld was so kind as to teach him the alphabet and how to spell. The second Mr. Auld found out, however, he forbade his wife to continue. Education had become important to Douglass, however, and he continued his learning with Master Hugh's family. He became friends with as many white boys as possible and began using them as teachers. After many years of practice and gaining knowledge from others, he learned to read and write with the help of copies he made from a Webster's spelling book. By the time he was twelve years old Douglass was reading anything he could get his hands on. It wasn't easy to reach this accomplishment with the slave-owners concerns in educating slaves. They thought it was unsafe and unlawful to teach a slave to read or write. Ignoring these thoughts, Douglass was determined to teach his fellow slaves how to read. During his time with Mr. Freeland, who only owned two slaves, he began devoted his Sundays to teaching these two slaves how to read. .
It was through Douglass's education that he began to realize that slavery was wrong. For all black slaves at this time realization was the key to becoming free, and the whites knew this.
