The theme of the literacy scene in slave narratives was discussed by William Lloyd Garrison, as a common convention of authentication. In it we see a slave owner who usually teaches the slave. It would seem that this education would improve the position of the slave, but in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave Written by Himself the author Douglass shows his reader that literacy was not enough to set him free. Throughout this text Douglass mentions how slaves were denied by their masters the basic needs that would have helped them build their identity. Early in the book Douglass states that slaves were rarely known the specific time and date they were born. In a way, knowing your birth date gives you a human identity. Slave owners tried to keep slaves at the same level as animals, they did not allow their slaves to acquire basic knowledge. Douglass states that when he started reading he began to feel independent and free. He meant that some of the reading and writing helped him see himself differently, not the way Douglass' masters see themselves. Literacy increased his sense of humanity. He realized that education would prevent him from performing his duty as a slave. He also realized that being free would require more than literacy. Literacy was simply a turning point that led him to the greater turning point of action – so education and action combined became his formula for freedom. From the beginning of the first chapter Douglass mentioned his separation from his origins, from his parents, so he did not know himself. He was prevented from knowing his position in society. In the first paragraph of the first chapter, I noticed more than eight negative rhetorical expressions... in the center of the paper... there is a completely new line of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. From that moment I understood the path from slavery to freedom” (31-32). Douglass' speech seems very direct. He understands and opposes the idea of ​​"the power of the white man to enslave the black man" and thinks that literacy and freedom are linked together. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. mentions in his writings on the relationship between literacy and freedom. He said, “Literacy was a commodity [slaves] were forced to trade for their humanity” (The Slave's Narrative xxviii). Literacy is not a God-given skill. Although white Europeans think that without education people like slaves are subhuman. Thus, Douglass thinks literacy is the only way to prove oneself as a human being.