In the first paragraph of "narrative of the life of fredrick douglass", douglass writes, "by far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs,” what does douglass mean in this statement? then he states, “and it is the wish of most masters to keep their slaves thus ignorant." why would most slave masters want this?

It sounds like Fredrick Douglass was pointing out that slave masters didn't want their slaves to have knowledge such as reading and writing, let alone knowing their own ages and such.

Most slave masters wanted this so that they could feel superior over blacks, and they didn't want the slaves to be equal with them.  

can you provide the statments and i will answer!

active voice: my father cut the tree.

passive voice: the tree was cut by my father.

active voice: people buy newspapers every day.

passive voice: newspapers are bought (by people) every day.

active voice: people have been using movies as political propaganda since world war ii.

passive voice: movies have been used as political propaganda since world war ii.

active voice: donna gave me my birthday present.

passive voice: i was given my birthday present (by donna). / my birthday present was given to me (by donna).

active voice: mom will leave the keys on the counter.

passive voice: the keys will be left (by mom) on the counter.

the words in parentheses are the agent of the passive voice and can be omitted when obvious, generic, or simply unnecessary.