lders to destroy his dignity. Douglass successfully climbed the ladder from a position of a powerless slave to a strong, devoted, influential, individual. He did so when he began to divert from the path of ignorance to one of education and power. How did Douglass escape the blinding state of ignorance? How did Douglass manage to escape misery and attain happiness? How did Douglass manage the escape of bondage and slavery? This transition involved a series of processed, the first being the destruction of ignorance. In the eyes of the slaveholders, a happy slave was an ignorant one. For this reason, they were denied any form of knowledge. The masters were fearful of discovering that a slave had run away or were plotting an escape. They were afraid of a slave acquiring a vision beyond the unjust conditions they lived by. In Frederick Douglass’, Narrative, he mentions how the first steps toward overcoming ignorance can lead to discontentment and realization of the harsh increments they live by as slaves. "…Whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have found, that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one" (Douglass, 64). Frederick Douglass, however, possessed the power to look toward a different, happier future. This power was his optimism. It enabled him to transpose his ignorance to knowledge. His wisdom and hopefulness lead him to escape slavery. How can a slave learn to read, write and analyze without any form of schooling? How can a person kept separated from the masses of society find the tools necessary for learning? How can a servant escape from their master’s evil watch to begin their educational adventure? In order to answer these questions, we must first understand Daniel J. Royer’s arguments posed in, "The Process of Literacy as Communal Involvement...
