Reading Response FDouglass–Fan

Question 2

When he was reading “The Columbian Orator” he found a dialogue between a master and a slave that ran away three times. After a thoughtful debate was completed, the master emancipated his slave voluntarily, which light up a candle in the dark night for Frederick, he saw some kindness from the slaveholder. Then he found Sheridan’s speeches about Catholic emancipation, the criticism about slavery. These readings really inspire him to speak for his soul, but he also saw the argument that people made to keep slavery, he saw messages from both sides, some heal and some sting his eyes.

“
learning 
to 
read
 had
 been
 a
 curse
 rather
 than
 a
 blessing.”

Frederick said that his ability to read will hurt him sometimes because while he received more information by reading the detail about slavery, his anger and hatred escalate. He finds out why his Master and Mistress want to keep him away from studying, he understood what slavery really is, he felt nothing can help him and this situation. At this moment he wants to be an uneducated slave, he sometimes wished to be a beast, so he can feel better being treated in a bad way, Slavery made him suffered physically and mentally. He knows what freedom is but he can never be, the way that freedom had present to him is very cruel, he wants to be the meanest reptile because every beast that can’t be capture is free.