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   akannan Teacher
   Middle School

   eNotes Editor

   The overwhelming dialectic between slave and master in Douglass' work rests in the notion of control and power.  Douglass articulates the idea that the institution of slavery rests and resides within the concept of control.  Slaveowners felt that their power can only be present through the disempowering of their slaves.  Limiting them through slave codes and harshly punishing them for gaining literacy would be examples of this process of disempowering.  Douglass' gaining the tools of literacy would have led to his death.  This reality of American slavery dynamics of power proves that slavery rested on being able to control and dominate, and that slaveowners were very fearful of relinquishing their power and treating slaves with a sense of autonomy and dignity.

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   Posted by akannan on Wednesday September 23, 2009 at 1:07 PM