Frederick Douglas was born a slave on a plantation in Maryland. He later managed to escape and find freedom. In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, readers were exposed to the life of an extraordinary individual and the struggles he endured throughout his life. Douglass' story is considered prose and fiction, both presented in a natural way: the tone factual and conversational. He finds the balance between historical accuracy, personal experience and emotion that is evident in every sentence. This autobiography not only explains the difficulties he experienced, but also how he faced them. Frederick Douglas himself was his most powerful argument against slavery. It was proof that some slaves could become intellectual, articulate, and productive members of society. He became an activist in the abolitionist movement. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Douglas talked a lot about education because he believed it was the key to freedom. In his personal experience, Douglass learned to read and gained the understanding that slavery was wrong and that God did not make blacks slaves to whites. The more knowledge a slave had, the more he saw that the slave system was based on the ignorance of the slaves and the lies of the white man's superiority. “It has always been used in such connections as to make it an interesting word to me. If a slave ran away and managed to free himself, or if a slave killed his master, set fire to a barn, or did something very wrong in the mind of a slave owner, this was considered the fruit of abolition.” For this reason, it was illegal to teach a slave to read and write. Learning the meaning of this word was the key to achieving a freedom that not everyone knew was possible. Douglass's expressed attitude toward slaveholders was evident throughout the narrative. A phrase that could best describe how it all began was mentioned in the seventh chapter. “I could not regard them otherwise than as a gang of successful thieves, who had left their homes, gone to Africa, and kidnapped us from our homes, and in a strange land had reduced us to slavery. I hated them because they were the meanest and at the same time the most evil of men." This explains that they robbed their country to become slaves and were also robbed of their lives. They were moved against their will to unknown locations and taken away from their families. The worst aspect of slavery was the lack of family ties. Slaves were raised without knowing their fathers, brothers, sisters, and sometimes not even their mothers. They spend very little time with their mothers, and for some, no time at all. This type of treatment is unfair and inhumane. The color of your skin should never be the basis of how someone is treated. Slave owners prevented them from having an established identity. If they saw themselves as individuals with a purpose and sense of self, they would have a desire to question authority. They kept parents and children apart because of the human instinct to develop kinship bonds. Slaves would form a support system and thus establish a group identity, leading to potential revolts and questions about their positions. Slavery not only affected blacks but whites as well. The narrative explained how mean white people could be. A small mistake made by a slave could be cause for bloody beatings. When Douglass moved into the care of Master Hugh, his wife displayed, in what he describes her as, celestial qualities. She bakes them.