Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass tells his story of growing up as a slave, his want to be free and the journey he took to become free in the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." He compares himself and his situation to the lives of the other slaves. He recognizes how much better of a position he was in, sometimes. Douglass shows how the white slavemasters treated the slaves like animals. He tells of his schemes to learn how to read. He would challenge the white boys that he knew to a read off and tell them that they couldn't read a certain line in a book. They would accept his challenge not knowing that he was secretly learning how to read through them. He shows later on that knowing how to read would hinder him in certain situations. The theme "Quest for Freedom" is apparent throughout the entire story. Douglass expresses how badly he wanted to escape from the chains of slavery in almost every chapter. I really enjoyed reading this narrative because it gave me some insight to how a slave was sometimes treated well.



Question: Was Douglass's "quest for freedom" stronger than other slaves because he kind of got a taste of freedom from living with more lenient masters?