Douglass’ story shows how white slaveholders propagate subjection by keeping their slaves illiterate and unaware of many opportunities. At the time Douglass was composing, many individuals accepted that subjugation was a characteristic condition. They assumed that blacks were intrinsically unequipped for taking part in ordinary society and, accordingly, ought to be kept as laborers for whites. As slave youngsters develop more seasoned, slave proprietors keep them from figuring out how to read, as education would allow them to be adequate for more significant work. Slaveholders comprehend that education would lead captives to scrutinize the right of whites to keep slaves. At last, by keeping slaves unskilled, Southern slaveholders keep up with command over what the remainder of America thinks about subjection.
It is from Hugh Auld that Douglass learns this thought that information should be the best approach to opportunity. In particular, Auld precludes his wife from teaching Douglass literacy on the grounds that training ruins slaves (Hennessy, 2012). Douglass sees that Auld has accidentally uncovered how whites figure out how to keep blacks as slaves and by which blacks may free themselves (Hennessy, 2012). The narrator presents his self-instruction as the essential means by which he can free himself and as his most prominent device to work for the opportunity, everything being equal.
In addition, throughout the story, Douglass fosters a differentiation between evident Christianity and bogus Christianity. He shows that slaveholders’ Christianity isn’t proof of their inborn goodness, yet simply a double-dealing show that serves to reinforce their grandiose mercilessness (Hennessy, 2012). To strike this differentiation, Douglass focuses on the fundamental logical inconsistency between the tranquil precepts of Christianity and the improper activities of slaveholders.
Reference
Hennessy, D. (2012). Classics of American Literature. David Hennessy.