Mistress Sophia Auld taught him the ABC's, and how to spell certain three and four letter words. Frederick was grateful, and eager to learn more, but the teachings abruptly stopped when Mr. Auld found out what was going on. He forbade Mrs. Auld to continue; he told her it was unlawful and unsafe to teach a slave how to read. "To use his own words, further, he said "If you give a nigger an inch, he"ll take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master --- to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now, if you teach that nigger 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" (Douglass 31). These were the some of the most important words that Frederick would ever hear. He knew it would be difficult to continue learning without a teacher, but his master's words gave him the desire and determination to do so. The decided manner with which Mr. Auld spoke assured Frederick that reading was the key to his freedom (Mabee 86).
Throughout the next few months Frederick adopted a plan that he carried out during the following years. He made friends with all of the little white boys he met in the streets. He converted them into teachers, and finally learned how to read. He offered bread to the poor little hungry children, "who, in return, would give me the more valuable bread of knowledge" (Douglass 34). .
When he was twelve years old, Frederick got hold of a book called The Columbian Orator. It was, for the most part, a dialogue between a slave and his master. In the end, the master voluntarily emancipated his slave because he knew it was the right thing to do. From this book Frederick learned the power of truth over the conscience, of even a slaveholder.
