Opression experienced in his youth as a slave along with learning and understanding the importance of literacy, allowed Douglas to understand concept of freedom and, Englightenment. “Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound and seen in every thing. It was very present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.”