Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American
Slave/Chapter 7 I lived in Master Hugh's family about seven
years. During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and
write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to
various stratagems. I had no regular teacher. My mistress, who
had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the
advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to
instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by
any one else. It is due, however, to my mistress to say of her,
that she did not adopt this course of treatment immediately. She
at first lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in
mental darkness. It was at least necessary for her to have some
training in the exercise of irresponsible power, to make her
equal to the task of treating me as though I were a brute. My
mistress was, as I have said, a kind and tender- hearted woman;
and in the simplicity of her soul she commenced, when I first
went to live with her, to treat me