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Essay On The Importance Of Frederick Douglass Knowledge

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“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” As I prepare for my journey into university life and beyond, I have found that these words, spoken by Frederick Douglass, have become a great inspiration to me. As an African American who truly understood the value of knowledge, his life has shown me the true beauty and importance of what I am seeking to gain. Douglass took responsibility to learn by creating his own opportunities, shared his knowledge willingly with others, and truly understood its value through the application of what he learned.

As a slave, Douglass was not given the chance to attend school. The convenience of a readily available curriculum and steady learning schedule were not his to enjoy. This being his predicament, he forged his own path to attaining knowledge. As a child, he would trick white children into sharing their reading and writing …show more content…

While in captivity on plantations throughout his life, he would often hold secret schools for the other slaves, teaching them to read and to write. He was punished severely for doing so, but he never quit. He wasted no opportunities to enlighten others, delivering a two-hour speech at the very first abolitionist movement he attended. His desire to share the things that he learned can be effectively summed up in his quote, “I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”

Despite the potential threat to his personal well-being, Frederick Douglass displayed his understanding of the value of knowledge by applying what he learned. In 1845, he published “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” exposing slavery for what it really was. Fully understanding the risk of being recaptured and returned to his master, Douglass shared his story with the world. He believed that exercising the freedom that knowledge had gained for him was far more valuable than his very

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