Frederick Douglass Education Essay

Frederick Douglass was an American slave who was considered as one of the prominent black writers and abolitionists of the nineteenth century. He was born during the era of slavery in Tuckahoe, Maryland. The exact date of his birth is unknown and believed to be in 1871. He was a son of a slave and his father was believed to be his master. He escaped to free himself in 1838. Douglass used literacy as a greatest medium to free himself from the bondage of slavery.
It was important for Douglass to learn to read to free himself. He appeals the emotional pain of being born as a son of a slave through the words in his autobiography. Education is a greatest equalizer. Even though, he was deprived of getting the formal education, he was blessed with

But, becoming literate was not an easy task for slave because they were obligated to work from sunrise to sunset in master’s plantation field. Slaves were considered as personal property. They were also prohibited from being educated by law. They were used as slaves for working in master’s house, breeding, working in the plantation field, and obeying the master. They were treated as animals with brutal acts such as physical, sexual, mental, spiritual and psychological torture. Slaveholders were free to conduct these inhuman acts. But the slave had to be always at the foot of the masters. It was extremely hard for a slave to get literate in that society. “A literate slave would be an unfit slave, desiring freedom from physical labor…., ultimately seeking physical separation from his master” (Delevante). Literacy in the slaves will create fear for the slaveholders (masters). If slaves start to become literate, then they will read the Bible and books on freedom and equality. Consequently, they will start to rebel against the white slave master for their freedom and equality. The only options left to achieve his goal of learning was to befriending the young white street boys and learn the lesson from them in free time. Douglass was inspired by the anti-slavery tales when he read The Columbian Orator. Literacy provides Douglass autonomy, discontent, and the desire to be free. When he was literate, he was no longer

Thousands of Africans were brought to America as slaves. Slaves were considered as personal property, entertainers and treated as wild beasts. Slave women were used as a machine for producing labor for plantation. The institution of slavery consisted of applying the business theory, and strategy for maximum profit to masters. Stronger the slaves were, higher was their market value. Authentic meaning of humanity had extinguished. “Preventing slaves from building familial connections made them less likely to revolt” (Delevante). Douglass was a child who never sees his mother during the daylight because she was enslaved to work from sunrise to sunset every day. Because of the color of the skin, he was abandoned from staying with his mother and sold to a slave master. Infant children of the slaves were separated from their parents. So that won’t develop the feeling of family heritage, individual liberty, and choices and responsibility in the slave. Our society was ruined from the ancient kings who build the churches and started the malpractice of slave institution which transferred from one generation to another chronologically.