“Unfit to be a slave”: Literacy in “The Life of Frederick Douglass”

Last post, I started writing about literacy in David Walker, Damon Smyth, and Marissa Louise’s graphic adaptation The Life of Frederick Douglass. In that post, I focused on the opening of the adaptation, specifically the framing of the text as Douglass sitting at his desk writing the narrative for us, the readers. Today, I want to focus on the depiction of Sophia Auld teaching Douglass to read Hugh Auld’s scolding of his wife and her shift in treatment towards Douglass. Damon Smyth’s panels and the position of individuals for this section draw attention to a myriad of themes that warrant discussion.

Writing in his 1845 narrative, Douglass tells us that upon his arrival at the Aulds’, Sophia “kindly commenced” to teach him to read, first by teaching him the alphabet then spelling. When Hugh discovered this, he chastised Sophia and forby her from continuing to teach Douglass how to read and write. He told her that it was against the law. Continuing, he said, “If you give a n***** an inch, he will take an ell. A n***** should know nothing but to obey his master — to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best n***** in the world. Now . . . if you teach that n***** (speaking of [Douglass]) 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…