Question

(Documents C)Then there is another matter of great importance in the South, and that is the problem of our Negro labor. There has always been a difference in the wage scale of white and colored labor. So long as Florida people are permitted to handle the matter, this delicate and perplexing problem can be adjusted; But the Federal Government knows no color line and of necessity it cannot make any distinction between the races. We may rest assured, therefore, that ... it will prescribe the same wage for the Negro that it prescribes for the white man. ... [T]hose of us who know the true situation know that it just will not work in the South. You cannot put the Negro and the white man on the same basis and get away with it. Not only would such a situation result in grave [serious] social and racial conflicts but it would also result in throwing the Negro out of employment and in making him a public charge.

why was this document written?
what the document saying?
what question does this document raise for me?
BRAINLES ​

Answer 1

By forbiding his wife to teach Frederick how to read, Mr. Auld makes it clear for Douglass that the only thing that kept black man as slaves was their ignorance. White men made sure that black people did not have access to an education, because if they were to be educated, they would attain a voice of their own.

Douglas finally understood that which he had been strugglin with for years. Through his master's words, he knew that the only way to be free would be through knowledge.

extra answer Douglass learns the white man's power comes from the ability to prevent education to the slaves.

The excerpt expresses Douglass' understanding of how education empowers the literate person and by remaining illiterate, unable to read, the master keeps his power against the slave.