Frederick Douglass drew a strong correlation between being a man and being free. Douglass's process of liberation begins psychologically and slowly manifests until it becomes a tea kettle boiling with action. Over the course of the story, Douglass gradually becomes a man based on the principles of knowledge and self-reliance. He identifies knowledge as the key to freedom and trust as its vehicle. Frederick first learns to read and write while living in Baltimore with Mr. and Mrs. Auld. His lover, whom he describes as “a woman of the kindest heart and most refined feelings,” begins to teach him to read. After discovering that Mrs. Auld was teaching Frederick to read, Mr. Auld abruptly ends the lessons. Douglass sees this as a decisive moment and states: “It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. Now I understood what had been the most perplexing difficulty to me: namely, the power of the white man to enslave the black man. Douglass has an exa realization...