Frederick Douglass And Education

Frederick Douglass was a young male slave born just outside Easton, Maryland in 1818. Douglass was enslaved up until the abolishment of Slavery on December 6th, 1865. Douglass had tried to change his life by attempting various ways to escape. Douglass wrote his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass to provide insight about the truths of slavery. One of the arguments of people who defended slavery is that the economy would essentially crash if slavery came to an end. Two aspects of slavery that Douglass has thrown light on are the way he and his fellow slaves have been punished by their masters and overseers and how they did not have any form of education provided.The first aspect Douglass threw light on is how slaves were

The slave owners did not approve of education of slaves, meanwhile the white kids were allowed to receive an education because the whites viewed themselves as superior to the slaves. Additionally, on page 28 Douglass writes, “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.” What Douglass wrote explains why the slaves did not have an education. Most masters wanted to keep their slaves ignorant, meaning, these masters did not want any source of education going to their slaves because the masters did not want the slaves to think, which by thinking, they could create a plan to escape. To conclude, Douglass emphasized how slaves were deprived of such knowledge showcased in his writing. The second aspect of slavery Douglass highlights is how he and his fellow slaves were

Furthermore, on page 51 Douglass states, “I told him as well as I could, for I scarce had strength to speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the side, and told me to get up… Mr. Covey took up the hickory slat with which Hughes had been striking off the half-bushel measure, and with it gave me a heavy blow upon the head, making a large wound, and the blood ran freely; and with this again told me to get up.” As revealed by what Douglass wrote, it explains even when Douglass was feeling, or seemed to be ill, he was given a kick in the side, and was told to get up, simply because he didn’t have the strength to get up. The slave masters did not have a second thought whether this was the right thing to do, as they believed that it was by God’s will to make some slaves and some masters. In summary, Douglass highlighted the cruel ways he and his fellow slaves were punished, which the punishments and beatings, were completely unreasonable. The ways of punishment slaves received and how they were denied an education are two aspects that Frederick Douglass has given insight