“Only educated men are free” was a quote from Epictetus and both Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass knew this to be true. Booker T Washington was freed from slavery in 1965, at age 9 when the civil war ended. Fredric Douglass ended up escaping slavery in 1838 at the age of 19. Slavery had been part of the United States since it’s inception and sadly a part of the fabric of many people’s lives. Many did not question the practice or how freed men and women would need help once it was abolished. Washington grew up free. As a young teen he knew education was the key to his success or he might end up doing only manual labor like many of his fellow freed black brothers and sisters. After getting his education he worked to bring awareness to the need for the other freed black men and women to be educated and the need for financial support for this endeavor. For much of Douglass’s life slavery was not illegal in the south. After he escaped to his freedom he spent the next 26 years speaking, writing, and educating on the inhumanity of slavery. He opened the eyes of many people who would have otherwise looked the other way.
Both were slaves in America, worked hard to get an education, helped other African Americans and knew education was key to a better life. While similar in these ways they had several
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However they did so in different ways. Booker, after improving and making Tuskegee a well known school, went on to tour many different places. He went all around America educated the white of the of Tuskegee and asked for funds to help the school. Eventually he visited Europe with his wife where he continued to speak about the importance of black men getting the opportunity to get an education. He later wrote a book about his life, struggles, and experiences. The book was well received and continued to bring attention to the need to help black men get educated in