| Quote #4 "Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world.
Now," said he, "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself)
how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever
unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable,
and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no
good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented
and unhappy." These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up
sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence
an entirely new train 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. I
now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty
--to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. (6.3)
Mr. Auld accidentally teaches Douglass why it's so important
that slaves be kept illiterate. If a slave learned to read, he
would no longer be satisfied to be a slave. In Mr. Auld's mind,
of course, this wo