Author: Marty

The first thing I noticed when reading, was how complex Fredrick Douglass’ writing is. Especially knowing he was a former slave. It’s shocking because slave-owners tended to keep their slaves on the “dumb” or uneducated side due to fear of a revolt. However he gives his mistress some credit in learning how to read. She planted the small seed of teaching him the alphabet, and the seed grew large and wide as he taught himself basically to read and write.

While talking about learning how to read Douglass states

“It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out.”

This is a very strong metaphor. He was feeling trapped, with no way out. He refers to learning how to read as a “curse and a blessing.”

“In months of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Anything, no matter what, to get rid of thinking!”

Douglass understood that knowledge is power, unless you can’t voice your issues. Or voice anything in that matter. He’d rather be as ignorant as his “fellow-slaves” because they seem to him, to not know anything is wrong with life. All they know is obeying their master’s wishes and commands. Simply because if you’re not exposed to a different way of living, you wouldn’t know about it. In the case of the slaves, they weren’t exposed to any different way of living and they couldn’t read about it as Douglass did. By reading The Columbian Orator, he stumbled upon some work that relayed the message of “Catholic emancipation” and this gave him the idea of freedom. He realized he was not born to be a slave, for he was indeed a human being. He then started to “abhor and detest” his owners.

His wish to be a beast, to not be able to think, are far beyond my understanding. It also disturbs me for a few different reasons. I can’t and never will be able to understand how slaves felt and what they thought, but I still can’t understand not wanting to have complex thoughts. Not wanting to have needs outside the primal ones such as food, water and sex as animals do. This wish by Douglass helps me in understanding the severe atrocity of slavery.

His way of learning to write is almost as amazing as that of his learning to read. By seeing the four letters on the ships, he memorized them and used them to trick little white boys into teaching him how to write. This cunning deception is one better than I’ve ever seen used in real life. The little boys didn’t even know they were helping him as they were blinded with pride.

Hannah-Jones’ introduction essay to The 1619 project brings up many valid points. One of these points being that African American’s pushed the way forward for an America for where everyone would be equal no matter race, gender or sexual orientation. Jones states “black rights struggles paved the way for every other rights struggle, including women’s and gay’s rights, immigrant and disability rights.” Women and Black Americans to this day are still fighting for equality. There are the LGBTQ+ movements that are going on every year. I do not necessarily agree with the statement that “without the idealistic, strenuous and patriotic efforts of black Americans, our democracy… might not be a democracy at all.” I think this is a biased viewpoint and wrong. It is true that things would be very different today, but there is no doubt in my mind that this country would not be a democracy. I am not downplaying the impact of black people and their fight for equality, because everyone knows how important that was to the system we have today.

I do not think the USA is an “evil” society. Unjust? Yes. Racist? Yes. Evil, however has a certain Hitler, Mussolini connotation which I just don’t see or feel in the US. No one is born racist or with prejudiced thoughts. They’re all picked up at the home and neighborhood you grow up in. My position is that everyone should be treated the same because we are all God’s creatures put here to love and be loved. The hatred from one race to another, one religion to another, one sexuality/gender to another should simply not exist. How can we be a “just” society when everything is Darwin’s idea of “Survival of the Fittest”? Natural selection already evolved humans into complex systems that can think. Now we should all think together on how we can all step up, instead of stepping on others on the way to the top. Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) has the idea that they’re better or smarter than someone else because of their background. While some may be smarter in terms of books and degrees, there is still a lesson to learn from every person you meet because they’re living their own life that’s just as complex and important as yours. Basically what I’m getting as is to just treat everybody with the same respect whether they be the boss or a low level assistant.