Essay On Frederick Douglass Education

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.” In the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Douglass emphasizes on how masters seek to deprive their slaves of knowledge, in order to make it so that slaves cannot comprehend what it is to be free. Hugh Auld, one of Douglass’s old masters stop his wife from teaching Douglass to read and write, saying “Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world… if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master.” (960) Douglass along with other slaves weren’t given the opportunity to be educated, so his goal was to be educated and to see all the opportunities he can have. Douglass showed readers that to truly obtain freedom it has to be through discovery of identity, including education, and knowledge of one’s self. Douglass’s narrative shows how only when Douglass understands who he is through education and that broadens his understanding of how slavery is dehumanizing as well as, strengthening his desire to emancipate himself.

In Douglass’s text he even mentions not ever meeting another slave who knew their birthday. Along with that, slaves were banned to learn to read or write so that their side of slavery wouldn’t be told. By doing this, slaveholders wanted to maintain control over what the rest of America knows about slavery, but knowledge is power and slaves overcame those obstacles. Knowledge helped slaves recognize the injustice of slavery to themselves and others. They came to know that they were too, men and women, not just slaves. Slaves were always torn from their children. For example, Douglass was taken from his mother after he was born and only remember encountering her only a few times in his