The subject of the literacy scene in slave narratives was discussed by William Lloyd Garrison, as a common convention of authentication. In it we see a slave owner habitually teaching the slave. It would seem that this education would advance the position of the slave, but in the self-written Account of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the author Douglass shows his reader that literacy was not enough to free him. Throughout this text, Douglass mentions how masters denied slaves their basic needs that would help them construct their identity. Early in the book, Douglass says, slaves rarely knew the precise time and date of their birth. In a sense, knowing one's date of birth gives one a human identity. Slave owners tried to keep their slaves at the same animal level, they did not allow their slaves to acquire basic knowledge. Douglass states that when he began reading, he began to feel independent and free. He meant that some of the reading and writing had helped him see himself differently, not as Douglass's masters saw themselves. Literacy elevated his sense of humanity. He realized that education would prevent him from fulfilling his duty as a slave. He also realized that it would take more than literacy to be free. Literacy was just a turning point that led him to the greater turning point of action – thus education and action combined became his formula for freedom. From the beginning of the first chapter, Douglass mentioned his separation from his origin, from his parents, which is why he did it. doesn't know each other. He was kept from knowing his position in society. In the first paragraph of the first chapter, I noticed more than eight negative rhetorical expressions... middle of paper ...... existence of an entirely new school 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. From that moment on, I understood the path from slavery to freedom” (31-32). Douglass's speech seems very simple. He understands and opposes the idea of ​​"the white man's power to enslave the black man" and believes that literacy and freedom are linked. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. mentions in his writings on the relationship between literacy and freedom. He said, “Literacy was a commodity [slaves] were forced to trade for their humanity” (The Slave's Narrative xxviii). Literacy is not a God-given skill. Even though white Europeans think that without education, people like slaves are subhuman. Thus, Douglass thinks literacy is the only way to prove oneself as a human being.