Chapters VI-IX

     Just like the last group of chapters, tonight's reading sparked various emotions; sadness, anger, and guilt. Hearing these first-hand accounts of the cruel nature of slavery feels more eye-opening than anything else. It is a completely different feeling reading what occurred in a textbook versus reading a specific man's story. There were two topics specifically that stood out to me in these chapters, one of which being the power of education, and the other being hope. 

Preventing slaves from being able to read and write is another very calculated way that slaveowners used to make slaves feel inferior and preserve the institution of slavery. His master Mr. Auld telling his wife that, "it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read," (20) stuck with me. The lack of knowledge the slaves had made them subservient to their masters and even the idea of an educated slave threatened the master's superiority. It also hurt me when he talked about how being educated almost felt like a curse instead of a blessing. It is horrible that being exposed to the reality of his situation because of his new ability to read made life even more hopeless for Douglass. 

The presence of hope and the lack thereof is another idea that struck me during the reading. It seems as though every time he gets a sense of hope, it is then crushed. Specifically, when reading about his fondness for his new mistress, I was hopeful that she would be an ally for him. Instead, his sense of hope was crushed as she became even crueler than her husband. This trend continues throughout the reading as every time things seemed to be looking up for Douglass, that hope was eventually shattered. But despite his hope continuously being shattered, he manages to hold on to the hope of one day escaping. He knows the likelihood hood is very low but refuses to be a "slave for life". I am interested in knowing how his road to escaping unfolds as the story continues.

His first-hand accounts show just how bleak the life of a slave was. As I read I keep thinking back to that point made in the preface that his story shows the life of just the average slave and does not even compare to the majority of slaves' stories. I am so shocked and mortified hearing Douglass's accounts. I can't even imagine what other's stories are like and what the cruelest masters must have done to their slaves.