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Teachers' Resource Web Study Questions on Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of an American Slave,
Written by Himself (1845) Chapter 6 1. How does Douglass introduce us to Mrs. Auld, the wife of his new master? Why does he set her up as completely innocent in the beginning? 2. What does Mr. Auld inadvertently teach his slave? 3. How does Douglass contrast the lot of city blacks with rural slaves? Nonetheless, what narration in Chapter 6 undermines that contrast? Chapter 7 4. What changes does Mrs. Auld soon undergo? Why do those changes come about? 5. Mrs. Auld not only equals the cruelty of her husband but outdoes him. What does her nearly instant success in topping her husband's cruelty say about the slaveholding South's effects upon white participants? 6. How does Frederick first set about furthering his education? How will the behavior of his playmates and teachers, the white children, soon change as they grow older? 7. Frederick also comes into the possession of a few books. What do those books contain? For whom were they written? What effect do they have upon Frederick, aside from helping him learn how to read? 8. Chapter 7 ends with Douglass' recollection that he "used to spend the time in writing in the spaces left (italics mine) in Master Thomas's copy-book, copying what he had written." What do the italicized words imply about the means by which he gained his education, and perhaps even his identity? What do reading and writing give Frederick the means of doing?
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