# Quote — Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

> The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as well as the most wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid of it. It was pressed upon me by every object within sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.

- Author: [Frederick Douglass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederick-douglass.md)
- Book: [Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederick-douglass/narrative-of-the-life-of-frederick-douglass-an-american-slave.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass#Narrative_of_the_Life_of_Frederick_Douglass,_An_American_Slave_(1845)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederick-douglass/narrative-of-the-life-of-frederick-douglass-an-american-slave/the-more-i-read

## More from this book

> I was broken in body, soul and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederick-douglass/narrative-of-the-life-of-frederick-douglass-an-american-slave/i-was-broken.md)

> Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederick-douglass/narrative-of-the-life-of-frederick-douglass-an-american-slave/let-us-render.md)

> I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederick-douglass/narrative-of-the-life-of-frederick-douglass-an-american-slave/i-have-often.md)