Lesson Title:  Close Reading of a passage from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave.

 

By:  Linda Dursteler and Vivian Easton, Teacher Consultants Wasatch Range Writing Project

 

Burning Question: By reading a passage from a slave narrative concerning literacy, will students be able to appreciate the power of literacy?

 

Objectives:  After completing this lesson, students will be able to:

·        Understand rhetorical devices used in the passage, i.e., appeals, syntax, diction, tone, imagery.

·        Recognize the importance to a slave of literacy and learning to read

·        Appreciate the dehumanizing effects of slavery on both the slaves and the slave owners.

 

Context:   A high school class reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave.

 

Materials:

Attached is a passage from Chapter VI of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. This activity can be repeated with other passages from the writings of Frederick Douglass. The challenge is to devise guided questions appropriate for the class using the text.

 

Time Span: One day plus follow up as needed.

 

Procedures:

  1. Step One:  prior to class, distribute copies of the passage to the students to read and annotate before class discussion.

  2. Step Two:  Conduct guided discussion of the passage, using the following questions.

    • What role does learning to read ultimately play in the development of Douglass’s personality and his escape from slavery?

    • Why does he describe his owner’s refusal to allow him to learn to read as “shutting me up in mental darkness

    •  What is the effect of the repeated contrasts between Douglass and his master in each sentence near the end of the passage, beginning with “What he most dreaded, that I most desired”?

    • What is Douglass’s tone when he says, with regard to the roles his master and mistress played in his learning to read, “I acknowledge the benefit of both”?

    • Step Three:  Culminating writing activity:  Students respond in a one- to two page paper to the discussion of the questions in Step Two. 

Extensions:  Students can research other slave narratives – some written, others oral testimony –to continue the study of rhetoric and language.

 

Rationale:  American slave owners recognized the power and the danger of a literate slave population and enacted laws to prohibit the education of slaves in order to keep them in bondage.

 

Resources:

From Chapter VI Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

 

Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. To use his own words, further, he said, "If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master--to do as he is told to do. Learning would ~spoil~ the best nigger in the world. Now," said he, "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy." These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty--to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it. Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read. The very decided manner with which he spoke, and strove to impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction, served to convince me that he was deeply sensible of the truths he was uttering. It gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on the results which, he said, would flow from teaching me to read. What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was to me a great good, to be diligently sought; and the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn. In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly aid of my mistress. I acknowledge the benefit of both.