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Claire Green

Honors English 11

Mrs. Bouch

16 March, 2018

Developing themes is important to the plot of any kind of story or novel. The Narrative of

the life of Fredrick Douglass is written by Douglass himself. It talks about many aspects of

slavery and themes. One major theme Douglass conveys throughout the story is that the slaves’

lack of knowledge was used as a way to keep slavery in existence. This theme is developed

through several literary devices. Douglass develops the theme ignorance is an implement for

slavery through character development, details, and short anecdotes.

Douglass shows this theme through character development. Mr. Auld gets mad at Mrs. Auld

for teaching Douglass to read. He says, “It is not safe” (Douglass 50). This shows that masters

consider giving knowledge to their slave the same as giving them power. Knowledge gives the

slaves the ability to read maps and signs, and creates the threat that they could run away.

Through his actions, Mr. Auld tries to keep Douglass ignorant in order to keep him a slave, and

not risk him escaping. In addition to Mr. Auld, Mrs. Auld becomes cruel and makes sure

Douglass has no way of learning. She is easily influenced by her husband, and disregards

Douglass as a person. Douglass talks about how Mrs. Auld completely changes from when she

first met him and was trying to help him. Douglass describes his first impression of her saying,

“When I went there she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted women” (Douglass 51). After

Mrs. Auld’s husband yells at her, Douglass explains how her mindset is changed by saying, “For

her to treat me as a human being was not only wrong, but dangerous” (Douglass 51). This

statement is a strong example of the mindset of most masters. Knowledge is thought of as

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supremacy. Therefore, it was the masters’ job to keep the slaves unaware in order to keep them

from running away or trying to defend themselves. If the slaves understand how to read and

write they would be better able to realize that they were being manipulated and dehumanized by

their masters. Douglass shows the major theme through Mr. and Mrs. Aulds’ actions towards

him.

Douglass shows how ignorance is used to support slavery through details in his story.

Douglass gives examples of how masters withhold common knowledge from the slaves. He talks

about how he does not even know the date he went to Baltimore. He says, “I remember only the

day of the week, for at the time I had no knowledge of the days of the month, nor the months of

the year” (Douglass 45). He also talks about how often times slaves did not even know their own

birthdays. Not knowing dates made slaves ignorant to what is happening in the rest of the world,

kept them from understanding what life was actually like, and kept them from hoping to live a

life of freedom. Douglass also gives details about how masters keep their slaves from reading

and writing, so that the slaves could not expose the masters’ unjust actions. Douglass talks about

how he was inspired to write about the horrors of slavery when he read the book, The Columbian

Orator. He talks about the book saying it “gave tongue to the interesting thoughts of my own

soul” (Douglass 54). Without the ability to write slaves had no way to speak up for themselves or

tell their stories. Lastly, Douglass describes a specific master named Colonel Edward Llyod. This

master was notorious for punishing slaves unjustly. Because slave owners did not offer the slaves

education, they have no voice. This makes it possible for masters alike Llyod to get away with

threatening the slaves cruelly without getting in trouble for it. Doulas shows how masters kept

the slaves ignorant, so they could not write about unjust matters or advocate for themselves.
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Douglass not only shows this theme through details, but also through anecdotes in his

story. Douglass tells a short story about what the holidays were like for the slaves. The slaves

were given the days between Christmas and New Years to celebrate the holidays. Douglass

describes these days saying, “These holidays serve as conductors, or safety-valves, to carry off

the rebellious spirit of enslaved humanity” (Douglass 84). The masters made it a disgrace if the

slaves did not drink during these days. As a result, the slaves would get sick and would have a

twisted sense of what freedom was actually like. This was an example of how masters used the

slaves’ ignorance to manipulate them. Douglass describes this manipulation as, “the most

effective means in the hands of the slaveholder in keeping down the spirit of insurrection”

(Douglass 84). This means that by using their own ignorance against them, masters were able to

keep the slaves spirits from getting too high, so they would not be able to find the motivation to

try to revolt. Slave masters had many ways of making sure the slaves stayed ignorant. Douglass

recalls another short anecdote about a slave that spoke out against his master. The slave simply

spoke the truth that his master did not treat the slaves well. However, due to the slaves ignorance

he was unaware that the person he told happened to be the master himself. As a result, the slave

was chained and sold. This story shows how the slaves ignorance would hurt themselves, and

serve as a tool for slavery. These anecdotes show that masters would go to any extent to keep the

slaves ignorant in order to upkeep slavery.

Slavery was a huge part of society during Douglas’ life. Slave owners would often go to

any extent to keep slavery in existence. Ignorance is one of the biggest tools that was used to

manipulate the slaves and keep slavery intact. Douglas not only restates this throughout his

narrative, but also, he constantly develops this theme through the actions of the characters, the

small details, and short anecdotes. Themes can be developed in many ways. It is important to
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analyze the plot and think about the significance of certain details when searching for the theme

in a text.