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How Did Frederick Douglass Impact On Modern Education

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Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave from Maryland, who later became a famous writer and activist. In his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he wrote about his experiences as a slave and, eventually, an escaped slave. In this book, it is talked about how important education is, and without it, Frederick Douglass would not have been able to escape. As a, now, very well-known man, he has made an impact on modern education.
Back then, slave owners wouldn’t educate slaves and allow them any kind of knowledge. They couldn’t learn to read and write, and they couldn’t know basic information about themselves, like their birth dates. When Douglass’ slave owner’s wife tried to teach Douglass, his slave owner stopped her, and said that a slave “should know nothing but to obey his master - to do as he is told to do.” His slave owner also mentioned how the ability to read would make him uncontrollable. Due to slaves being uneducated, they can’t really articulate and just think that all there is to life is to follow their master. Most of the time, they won’t think …show more content…

In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass talks about how he had to educate himself. Before, he thought that his life as a slave was permanent. He didn’t think of himself as a human, and he wasn’t able to develop as a person. It was after his education that he started to think of his life as a slave and of a plan to escape. He saw himself more as a human being and hated his master for treating him the way he did. He was able to mature and grow as a person as well. Thanks to his knowledge, he was able to think of a plan to escape slavery and successfully escape. And he was able to survive in the North not only because of help from others, but also because of the knowledge he had. If he didn’t know how to read or write, and still had the mentality of a slave, he probably would have had a harder time fitting

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Once Mr. Auld finds that Mrs. Auld is teaching Douglass to read, Mrs. Auld is told that it is “unsafe” when a “slave [learns] to read” (Douglass 20). This experience shows Douglass that if he continues to become more educated, he will be treated more and more inhumanely because owners will think he is a “threat” to them. Even though being a “threat” merely means losing money at most, it is enough for slave owners to choose not to educate their slaves. While Douglass felt evocative of this experience, he realized that the experience showed him “the pathway from slavery” (Douglass 20). From that moment on, Douglass knew that at some point in his life, he would be a free man, no matter what it took.

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Frederick Douglass was a slave whose goal was to learn to read and write. Even though Douglass knew that he, and the people helping him achieve this goal, could get in serious trouble. Douglass wanted to be treated as a human with all the same qualities. The narrative states, “It is Almost an unpardonable offense to teach slaves to read in this Christian country.”

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In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass reveals a way to acquire freedom through education. As a child, Frederick Douglass possessed no knowledge of his genuine identity. A desire to obtain such information generated the feelings of sadness, unhappiness, and misery

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Since his early years, Douglass was opposed to slavery and showed a great self-esteem, especially in comparison with the other slaves who did not have such strong urge to protect themselves. After obtaining the reading skills, Douglass did not stop reflecting on the unfairness of the system he lived in. Indeed, Douglass himself wrote about his beliefs and regarded himself as a supporter of the rights of slaves but this was after the process of his regret, emotional loss, and inability to find the reasons for living, “I often found myself  regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed” (Douglass 36). Even during the time of despair, Douglass thought that he must be freed from the whole life of a slave. Apart from this, after he became free, this man was confident enough to talk to the white people and did not face the inner willingness to be too pleasing.

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Frederick Douglass - legally named Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey - was born in February 1818 as a slave born in Maryland, United States. He is an African-American abolitionist and author, most commonly known for his autobiography - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. Douglass is one of the most reputable individuals known to exist when regarding his impact on slavery and the depletion of it as a whole. He allied and took the defence of equality among African Americans and the abolishment of slavery, and subsequently became a desired figure of presence within the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and political parties. He continued to do all of this until he died in 1895.

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Education played a big role in Frederick’s life. Douglass had this great idea where he believed that having an education would help him survive the slave world. As he begins his narrative he introduces himself as a former slave and the son of a white master. He sees how even though he is son to a white male, he is still seen as a slave, uneducated and ignorant. Douglass mentions his narrative that at this point of life he really has no accurate account of his real age.

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He thought education was a right for all people and even himself rebelled and learned to read and write. He was not all self made though, as he had help from a group of white children whom helped him read. It says on page 23 chapter 7, “The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was the most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street.” This piece of evidence connects to another piece of evidence in the same place which says, “For I was much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood. This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge.”

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Toward the end of the times of slavery and the beginning stages of freedom for slaves, Frederick Douglass used his influential and motivational voice to educate people about the upbringing of himself in hard times. Douglass was born into slavery, learning the lessons of an unconventional upbringing early on. When he was 20 years old, Douglass successfully escaped where he was being held as a slave and eventually reached New York City. Frederick’s journey only started here. He believed that becoming a self-made man didn’t come from luck, but it came from hard work and dedication.

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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.

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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.

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Because of this, he successfully creates a contrast between what the slave owners think of and treat the slaves and how they are. Douglass says that slave’s minds were “starved by their cruel masters”(Douglass, 48) and that “they had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass, 48) and through education, something that they were deprived of, Frederick Douglass is able to open their minds and allow them to flourish into the complex people that they are. By showing a willingness to learn to read and write, the slaves prove that they were much more than what was forced upon them by their masters.

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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.

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Furthermore, Education opened Douglass’s eyes to the reality of his injustice as a slave; thus, compelling him to action as he recalls, “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. ”(Douglass, 2014, p.133) Education caused Douglass heartache. While attaining his education benefited Douglass, he could not relate to his fellow slaves. The fellow slaves had the ability to remain content with their current state of being since it was all they had ever known. Douglass knew otherwise and longed for the forbidden life as a free man, as it changed from an unattainable idea into an achievable

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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.

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