"Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world" (78). Words that would serve as an affront to most work to inspire Frederick Douglass. Douglass himself states earlier in his book that the "mere circumstance of being removed from that plantation to Baltimore..." (75) would be the foundation on which he found his freedom, but I see this quote, from a conversation with his master to his wife on the risks involved in educating a black man, a slave, to be first and most significant (of many other quite important) lessons in Fredericks lifetime of lessons.

It was 1826 and Frederick was somewhere between the ages of seven and eight. Young Douglass is sent to Baltimore - an exciting prospect for a slave - to live with Hugh and Sophia Auld. Sophia had never owned a slave before and had herself made her own living before her marriage. She showed a...