In both books we can see how the two characters, Frederick Douglass (The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass) and Linda Brent (Incidents in the life of a Slave) have contact with the concept of education. Slaves knew that learning things could be useful to them. If one day they were free and able to get a job, they knew that what they had learned would be both useful and necessary to them. They also realized that an educated slave was not looked upon favorably. Aware of this, slaves normally decided to act as if they were uneducated and knew nothing at all. This way the owner will not know that he was actually uneducated or willing to learn. The owners considered the education of slaves to be something evil and it was strictly prohibited. In some cases, owners, mainly wives, would teach slave children to read or write. This can be seen in the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, where we see that Linda's mother's mistress treated Linda well and taught her to read. However, in most cases, husbands realize this and forbid their wives from educating slaves. This concept is easily seen in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, where we see that Hugh Auld's wife, Sophia, begins to teach Frederick to read. When Hugh finds out about this, he forces her to stop it; because he thinks that the education of slaves will make them more difficult to