Fredrick Douglass was a black slave during the 1800’s who escaped from his master and came to the North. His age is unknown as stated by Fredrick Douglass (1845/1995), a great orator who brought many to the abolitionist cause, in his work, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, “I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot County, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it” (p.1). While Douglass was a slave he was convinced that education was the path to freedom, he also witnessed the horrors of slavery, and would most likely hold the same views in today’s world as he had back in the 1800’s. Douglass believed that education was the path to freedom and the view was correct. Education could help slaves to learn information about the North and to help them get a job in the North, though most worked in factories which required very little education. Douglass first began his education when Mrs. Auld, one of his mistresses, started to teach him to read and write, but the lessons were short lived as Mr. Auld stopped his wife saying, as Douglass (1845/1995) stated, “If you teach that nigger how to read, there will be no keeping him” (p. 20). Misses Auld ended …show more content…
Education brings people better employment and thus, better pay in the current time. Douglass would very likely continue to fight against slavery even though it would be easier for his master to find out whom and where he is with our current technology, therefore making his life even more dangerous than it was. Slavery has always been a terrible idea and the abolitionists would still be on the side of Fredrick Douglass as they were back then. Douglass would continue to hold the views with which he watched the world in the 1800’s in the world of
During his young years, Douglas believed and sought education as the pathway to freedom, which would lead to economic success and a way out of poverty. He believed education was critical for African Americans to achieve equality. Douglass secretly set up schools for slaves and taught them how to read and write . Thanks to his literacy, he could lecture and write about the evils of slavery and campaign to abolish it. He fought for the rights to vote.
Frederick Douglass He was born into slavery and worked on a slave farm in Maryland and in Baltimore when he was very young. Although Douglass got a bit more freedom than any other slave did down south. Slave were allowed or granted with nothing at all because they were slaves and people believe that they deserve nothing but to work more very little or not at all. During his free time Douglass his slave owner's wife had taught him how to read and write but her husband ended that quickly. Shortly after that he found ways to teach him.
Frederick Douglass was a radical abolitionist born into slavery in 1818, starting with almost nothing, he worked his way up in life, trading his bread for the opportunity to learn to read and write. With time Douglass escaped slavery and from then on found his purpose of freeing his fellow men as well as other minorities in American society, “He became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time, advising presidents and lecturing to thousands on a range of causes, including women’s rights and Irish home rule” (Frederick Douglass Journalist, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Government Official(c. 1818–1895), 2017). Douglass through his dedication to learning to read and right developed a strong passion for fighting to promote human rights and equality. Through his lectures and published works, Douglass spread acceptance and taught that the American nation must treat all of its members with respect, “‘Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren’" (Frederick Douglass Journalist, Civil Rights Activist,
Life began for Frederick Douglass as a slave without any indication of what the future would hold. A fortunate event occurred of Douglass; he learned to read as well as glimpse the abolitionist movement in Baltimore. Douglass quickly realized the institution of slavery and proper education cannot exist together. After being sold to a “slave breaker”, a drive for freedom and education was born. Frederick kept educating himself after his escape and joined the abolitionist movement.
Frederick Douglass was one of the most prominent black leader of the nineteenth century. He was an abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, journalist, newspaper editor, social reformer, and a race leader. In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates his lifetime occurrences and experiences as a slave, in much detail. Douglass’ key objective was to inform his spectators about the reality of slavery and influence them that such an outrageous convention should be abolished. Douglass was born as a slave in Maryland in 1818.
According to Mistress Hugh, “education and slavery were incompatible with each other” (Douglass, 33). Although Mistress Hugh had stopped teaching Douglass how to read, the seed of knowledge had already been planted. In the years that followed, his hunger for knowledge did not dissipate. Douglass devised various methods to learn to read and write in very clever ways.
However, literacy turns out to be not only bliss, but also painful. Indeed, while learning to read Frederick becomes more and more aware of the injustices of slavery, and this leads him to regret this knowledge “Learning how to read had become a curse rather than a blessing” ( Douglass ) . Douglass believes in the importance of education. He thinks that education is a key part to our life; it is the only way to get freedom. Literacy is very powerful because it can set anyone free to pursue dreams.
The legendary abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass was one of the most important social reformers of the nineteenth century. Being born into slavery on a Maryland Eastern Shore plantation to his mother, Harriet Bailey, and a white man, most likely Douglass’s first master was the starting point of his rise against the enslavement of African-Americans. Nearly 200 years after Douglass’s birth and 122 years after his death, The social activist’s name and accomplishments continue to inspire the progression of African-American youth in modern society. Through his ability to overcome obstacles, his strive for a better life through education, and his success despite humble beginnings, Frederick Douglass’s aspirations stretched his influence through
A slave that has education “would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy (Douglass Online). Words like these could really bring a person down; however, Douglass used them as motivation to pursue an education in hope that one day it would put him on top of the people that control what he does and does not do every
Human slavery requires ignorance, just as an individual’s freedom, from oppression, requires knowledge attained by education. To maintain order and control over slaves, slavery demands ignorant slaves; thus, keeping slaves ignorant prevents slaves from recognizing the empowering value of education and education’s ability to liberate slaves from the effects of ignorance. Frederick Douglass’s pursuit of education helped him discover the dark, hidden truths of slavery in his article, “How I Learned to Read and Write.” Thus, the pursuit of education inspires a desire for freedom. The desire to learn generates determination and motivation.
Frederick Douglass believed that through literacy, a slave or black people, could receive their key to freedom. This was shown when Mrs.Auld taught Frederick how to read when he first got to their plantation. It was also shown when Frederick gave bread to white kids to learn how to read and spell. Another place it was shown is when Frederick listened to a conversation and went to the dictionary to find out the meaning of those words.
Douglass for example emphasized the importance of education for slaves. Douglass is a first had observer of the strategy of slave owners to keep their slaves ignorant. By keeping slave uneducated they are unable to express the horrible things that happen to them to the world. Hugh Auld forces his wife to stop teaching Douglass to read (auld stopping teaching quote) , so Douglass teaches himself. For him learning to read was a major turning point in his quest for freedom and it enabled him to put out his book, which would inspire many to turn against slavery.
Although Frederick Douglass was not expected to be literate, he taught himself how because he believed that education should be for everyone, not just a few privileged children. Frederick Douglass was a slave for life in the southern United States before the Civil War. He had no regular teacher because, at that time, most slave owners did not believe that their slaves should be taught to read and write. White slave owners thought that if slaves knew how to read, they would go against their owners and fight against slavery.
With all the knowledge he was gaining, he began to comprehend everything around him. The things he was learning fascinated him, but the “more [he] read, the more [he] was led to abhor and detest [his] enslavers”(Douglass 35); however, that should not be viewed as a negative affect but a positive one. No one should want to be deceived for their entire life. This hatred that he built up motivated him to continue to further educate himself. As a result, he later motivated other slaves to earn an education by having “[availed] themselves to [an] opportunity to learn to read” (Douglass 69) by Douglass teaching them every Sunday.
The level of education of the slaves on the plantation allow them to be manipulated by their masters. In many situations during the 1800s when slavery was prominent we can see that education holds power in society. Slave masters were educated and due to this, they were able to exert control over the slaves on the plantation. Douglass was self-educated and was able to analyze slave behavior and see slavery occur firsthand as a slave himself. In the book, we can see how the slave’s ignorance is actually bliss from the perspective of Douglass, how information like knowing how to read was withheld from the slaves and why and why slave-owners preferred non-educated slaves to educated ones.