"Nature made us friends; slavery made us enemies." Douglass and his mistress have an unusual relationship. Most slaveholders would treat their slave harsh and with no remorse. Mrs. Auld however did not. She began educating the young slave, Fredrick Douglass. She taught him to read and have a love for it. Even after she ceased her teachings, Douglass still read.
- What idea about slavery is depicted through Fredrick's interaction with his mistress? How does he use rhetorical devices to convey that ideas?
"Poor lady! She did not know my trouble, and I dared not to tell her... Her abuse fell on me like the blows of a false prophet upon his ass; she did not know that an angel stood in the way; and -such is the relation of master and slave- I could not tell her."
Douglass's interactions with his slaveholder's wife, Mrs. Auld, shows that there is not all hate in a relationship between a slave and a slave master. Douglass use of parallelism, imagery and allusions helps to depict the young man's life.
----- Jazlyn Verner
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