Frederick Douglass beautifully argued that slavery hurts the slave owner as much as the slave. This is true with any kind of oppression - those who oppress pay a terrible price for what they do to others. He also discusses the pains taken to keep him from learning how to read. The fear of an educated slave was another burden the slaveowner suffered. And it never works. The truth always finds a way.
Here are a couple of interesting quotes from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
(Speaking of his owner, Mrs. Hughs)
Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman, There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness.
(In learning to read, and becoming aware, Douglass is forever changed - the thing that the slaveowners feared the most.)
I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid of it. It was pressed upon me by every object within sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. The silver trump of freedom has roused my soul to eternal wakefulness.
No comments:
Post a Comment