Douglass and his Mistress

• What idea about slavery is developed through Frederick's interaction with his mistress? How does he use rhetorical devices to convey this idea?

This generation grew up learning about the horrors of slavery while others, such as Frederick Douglass, had to lived through it. In Douglass's auto-biography, "My Bondage, My Freedom", he speaks of a specific time in which he was taught to read by the wife of his slave owner. Mrs. Auld, Master Hugh's wife, had grown to love Douglass just as she loved her own son. This proved to be a problem and eventually Mr. Auld forced his wife to stop teaching Douglass. This caused a rift in the relationship that Mrs. Auld and Douglass had been growing and at one point, Mrs. Auld was treating Douglass worse that Mr.Auld. In the text it states that “ I could talk and sing; I could laugh and weep; I could reason and remember; I could love and hate.” This explains that Mrs. Auld treats Douglass as a human being until she is taught otherwise by her husband. She, as a white slaveholder, and he, as a slave, are parallel in their humanity.

Eventually, Douglass realized that the only way to break the chains of slavery would be to continue learning to read. Knowledge had finally set him free and he would do anything to keep that sense of freedom.