Douglass spent about seven years in Master Hugh's house, and, in secret, he learned to read and write during that time, despite the fact that the once-kindly Mrs. Auld soon internalized the evils of being a slave owner. She accepted the advice of her husband and became a strident advocate of keeping slaves illiterate, for she feared losing Douglass if he gained an education. However, Douglass developed schemes to learn how to read; he tricked neighborhood kids into teaching him by giving bread to poor white boys in exchange for lessons, and he practiced writing using little Thomas' books.
Ironically, Douglass' ability to read soon made him unhappy, for it opened up a whole new-and wretched-world for him. From newspapers, he realized the enormity of a people enslaved by powerful white masters. However, newspapers also furnished him information about the abolitionist movements in the North, and he learned about the Irish dramatist and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan and his struggles for Catholic emancipation and human rights. His spirits began to lift after meeting some sympathetic Irish workers in a shipyard, who advised him to escape to the North. He was only twelve years old, but he resolved that day to eventually run away.
