The Rise of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was a man born into slavery. Separated from his mother and

unaware of his father's identity, he was left to bear the burden of slavery all on his own.

Early on Douglass realized that an education was his ticket to freedom. Throughout his

life Douglas met many obstacles on his way to freedom, and more often than not these

obstacles were created at the hands of one of his many masters.

In his letters, Douglass speaks of no less than five masters under which he was

forced to serve, his original master, the Auld brothers, Mr. Covey, and William Freeland.

While all of these men were bad, some actually meant well and were simply victims of

their time. However some of these men were cruel and vicious and were the lowest

forms American society has ever had to offer. Now, let us attempt to separate the good

apples from the bad.

Douglass's first master, Captain Anthony, probably had the least direct influence

in his life. While he was certainly a bad man, witnessed by Douglass in the beatings and

torture of his aunt, his exposure to this man was limited due to the fact young children

usually stayed on the outskirts of the plantation, so his time with this master was of

smaller significance. Anthony's importance lies in the fact that he is probably Douglass's

father. We learn that this is a suspicion of Frederick's, and this suspicion is backed up by

the fact that he is sent away at an early age something that many slave owners do to their

slave sons.

The first family Frederick was sent to were the Aults. It is hard to categorize

as either a bad or good master Hugh and Mrs. Ault. While with this family he was

treated as good as could be expected. In fact, Mrs. Ault, at first treated him quite nicely,

even teaching him the alphabet. However, Mr. Ault put a stop to this, "If you give a

nigger an inch, he will take an ell... Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world."

(p.946) It is while listening to this oration that a young Douglass sees just how important

it is that he does in fact learn to read, "These words sank deep into my heart...From that

moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom...I set out with high

hope...at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read." (p.946) Frederick stayed with

this family for most of his young life, taking every opportunity he could to gain

knowledge. After spending seven years under Master Hugh he was sent to live with

Thomas Ault.

Thomas Ault was definitely a bad man to have a master. He was a religious man

who used his religious beliefs as an excuse for his barbarism. Master Thomas would

definitely be considered one of the bad apples. But, perhaps, his biggest influence on

Douglass happened when he sent Frederick off to be broken by Mr. Covey.

Mr. Covey was as mean as they come, rotten to the core to say the least. However,

it was while Douglass was under the control of Mr. Covey, that he became a man. He

stood up to the slave driver Covey, letting him know that he would be his whipping