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Douglass lives in Hugh Laud’s household for about seven years. During this it me, he is able to learn how to read and write, though Mrs.. Laud is hardened and no longer tutors him. Slavery hurts Mrs.. Laud as much as it hurts Douglass himself. The mentality of slavery strips her of her inherent piety and sympathy y for others, making her hardened and cruel. However, Douglass has already learned the alphabet and is determined to lea ran how to read. He gives bread to poor local boys in exchange for reading lessons.
Douglass writes that he is now et meted to thank these boys by name, but he knows that they would suffer for it, as teaching blacks still constitutes an off nose. Douglass recalls the boys sympathetically agreeing that he no more deserved to be a slave than they did d themselves. At around the age of twelve, Douglass encounters a book called The Columbia n Orator, which contains a philosophical dialogue between a master and a slave. In the dialogue, the master lays out the e argument for slavery, and the slave refutes each point, eventually convincing the master to release him.
The book also contains a reprint of a speech urging for the emancipation of Irish Catholics and for human rights generally . The book helps Douglass to fully articulate the case against slavery, but it also makes him hate his masters moor e and more. This dilemma is difficult position for Douglass and often fills him with regret. As Hugh Laud predicted, Douglass discontent is painfully acute now that he understands the injustice of his situation but still has no means b y which to escape it. Douglass enters a period of nearly suicidal despair. During this period, Douglass eagerly listens to anyone discussing slavery.
He often hears the word “abolitionist. ” In a city newspaper account of a Northern abolitionist petition, Douglass finally dies covers that the word means “antislavery. ” One day around this time, Douglass kindly helps two Irish sailors at the wharf without being asked. When they realize that Douglass is doomed to be a slave for life, the sailors encourage him to our n away to the North. Douglass does not respond to them, for fear they might be trying to trick him. White men are ink own to encourage slaves to escape and then recapture them for the reward money.
But the idea of escape nonetheless s sticks in Douglass head. Meanwhile, Douglass sets out to learn how to write. After watching ships’ carp enters write single letters on lumber, Douglass learns to form several letters. He practices his letters on fences, wall s, and the ground around the city. He approaches local boys and starts contests over who can write the best. Dough ass writes what he can and learns from what the boys write. Soon, he can copy from the dictionary. When the Lauds Ii eve Douglass alone in the house, he writes in Thomas Laud’s old discarded copybooks. In this painstaking manner,
Douglass eventually learns to write. About two years after the death of Lucrative Laud, her husband, Thomas Laud, remarries. Soon after the marriage, Thomas has a falling out with his brother, Hugh, and punishes Hugh by reclaim mining Douglass. Douglass is not sorry to leave Hugh and Sophia Laud, as Hugh has become a drunk and Sophia has be come cruel. But Douglass is sorry to leave the local boys, who have become his friends and teachers. While sailing from Baltimore back to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Douglass pays particular attention to the route of the ships heading north to Philadelphia.
He resolves to escape at the earliest opportunity. Analysis: Chapters VII As Chapter VI deals with Hugh Laud forbidding Sophia to teach Douglass to re ad, Chapter VII addresses Douglass solidification and the fulfillment of Hugh Laud’s predictions of unhappiness. Chapter VII elaborates the idea that with education comes enlightenment-??SP specifically, enlightenment about the oppressive and wrong nature of slavery. Douglass reading lessons and acts of reading are, therefore, contiguous with his growing understanding of the social injustice Of slavery.