Part II

About nine years ago I sat down to carefully read the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. I was shocked by how little I knew about his early life considering that I was taught about him in elementary school. I knew he was a former slave who would become an abolitionist and that he gave notable anti-slavery speeches. What I didn't know was that he was owned by his very own father, Aaron Anthony. Another remarkable thing about him was that he had built such an infamous reputation as a difficult slave to control that he was finally sold to a slave breaker named Edward Covey. He was only a teenager at the time but Douglass would stand up to Covey and beat him so badly that the slave breaker was broken and didn't dare strike him again.

Part of Douglass' defiance may have stemmed from his earlier years when he was sold to Mister and Missus Auld. It was there that at the age of 7 he tasted the slightest bit of freedom when Mrs. Auld proceeded to teach him how to read. When her husband found out about what she was doing he ended it and Douglass would watch the power of being a slave owner corrupt her over time. Her change from a kind woman to a brutish slave master was so remarkable that it made an indelible mark on him. Still, his desire to learn was planted, and of course, it would grow into the mightiest tree of justice that many continue to feed from today! - DG