Fredrick Douglass

“Narrative of Fredrick Douglass” chapter VI paragraphs 1-2

In chapter 6 of “The Narrative Of Frederick Douglass” we learn more about Douglass is youth as a slave. Douglass was designated to new owners , that being Mr and Mrs Auld. When first arriving there Mrs Auld is described to be a kind soul , a woman whose appearance matched her actions. It was Mrs Auld’s first time owning a slave and she showed no signs of acting like other slave owners. She had the finest feelings according to Douglass and would go out of her way to begin teaching him how to read and write. However such kindness lasted a short time and she soon was influenced to start acting differently with Douglass. Mr Auld found out about Douglass’ learning and demanded his wife to stop teaching him. He claimed that teaching a slave would make them unmanagable and cause them to act up. Mrs Auld obliged and soon her cheerful face would become angry and menacing. To me this section of the chapter was rather intriguing because it proved that not everyone looked at just the skin tone of a person. It showed that slavery in america was largely influenced, everyone was being brainwashed to believe that what they were doing was right. This event is what also introduced Douglass into reality. He talks about how these words sunk deep and how it stirred up his mind as a child. It caused him to belittle himself and the way the text is written gives us no option but to feel sympathy. His way of setting the scene and describing all the emotions that were going through him at that time shows us how strong he was. Dealing with this as a child isn’t an easy task and the fact that Douglass would keep pushing soon after this shows how compelling he was. The question left in mind for me is was there such thing as good slave owners?