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How Does Frederick Douglass Encourage The Power Of Education

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Education is a key. Not many can find it, but those who do can unlock the door to endless knowledge. Abolitionist leader and American slave, Frederick Douglass, in his autobiography A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, contemplates the enslavement he endured while emphasizing the importance of education as a key to freedom. Throughout Douglass’ educational awakening and his realization of its overall power, he comes to understand the slaveholder’s evil doings in keeping all slaves trapped in ignorance.
The inception of Douglass’ path to learning was through an unlikely source, being his master’s wife. It was her invaluable kindness that provided Douglass with the foundation of an education and her change of heart towards him that …show more content…

While Mr. Auld criticizes his wife for her wrongdoings, Douglass discovers that “power over a white man would be through education” (32). Using specific diction of the word power, he enables the strength of intelligence and its valued quality. Witnessing Mr. Auld’s upsetting manner fabricates Douglass’s consciousness of education’s essential benefit to the captive world he is confined in. He discerns how much intelligence is admired by a white man, consequently their purpose for keeping their workers unintelligent. Slaveholders’ representation of an intelligent slave would only result in him being “unmanageable” (32) in their guidance and possibly put them in the same hierarchy as them, something they feared. Education opens a gateway to Douglass and enlightens him of what is beyond the walls of enslavement urging him towards independence. Slaves being intellectually informed of their surrounds terrified slaveholders due to them being aware of their loss of control over slaves because they are no longer ignorant. Although Douglass was appreciative that some slaves were able to escape through the famous Underground Railroad, he was critically unsure about sending the uneducated slaves off to a place unknown to them as they “do nothing towards enlightening the slave” (71). He views it as doing much “towards enlightening the master” (71). The Underground Railroad created the slaveholder’s fear of their slaves escaping since they were aware of their actions. Sending the slaves with not even an ounce of intelligence alarms Douglass for they have no awareness of the world before them. And without this guidance and awareness, they will infinitely be imprisoned in their slave mindset, for they are still no better than what they were

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This self-education was a critical step in his journey towards freedom and advocacy. Douglass recognized that knowledge and education were the key to breaking free from the chains of slavery and empowering himself and his fellow slaves. Through his writing and speeches, Douglass became one of the most influential voices of his time, advocating for the abolition of slavery and the rights of African Americans. Both Montag and Douglass show that education can be a powerful tool for transformation and liberation. Through education, they gain a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them, and they are able to challenge the oppressive systems that seek to limit their

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Many of us take education for granted and don’t learn to our fullest potential, but Fredrick Douglass soaked in every piece of information up because he knew it was his way out. “Learning to Read and Write” is a famous article based on what Fredrick Douglass went through to earn a valuable education while being enslaved. Author Fredrick Douglass, wrote “Learning to Read and Write”, published in 1845. Throughout the article, he takes us through different events he goes through while being enslaved. Douglass begins building his credibility with personal facts and successfully demonstrating logic and pathos appeal.

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Education could help slaves to learn information about the North and to help them get a job in the North, though most worked in factories which required very little education. Douglass first began his education when Mrs. Auld, one of his mistresses, started to teach him to read and write, but the lessons were short lived as Mr. Auld stopped his wife saying, as Douglass (1845/1995) stated, “If you teach that nigger how to read, there will be no keeping him” (p. 20). Misses Auld ended

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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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When Frederick’s master was upset with his wife for giving Frederick reading lessons, Frederick’s master wanted to “impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction” and this “served to convince me of the results, which would flow from teaching me to read.” (Chapter 6) This proves that Frederick's master was cruel and dreadful and wanted to “impress” people on what evil consequences are giving to slaves if they learned to read. Douglass firmly believes that the black man could not be enslaved. Despite the economic necessity, if they were educated and literate.

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In Frederick Douglass’s book, he writes accounts of his time in slavery and beyond. Throughout the book, Douglass writes about not only the physical hardships slaves endured, but the mental and emotional hardships as well. In Chapter X, Douglass describes a battle he had with a temporary slave owner named Mr. Covey. After the fight concludes, Douglass writes, “This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.

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Douglass' life took place in a time where the white man ruled over the black folk, and made the whole race slaves. The lacks were not given any sort of education, on the other hand whites were given an opportunity to learn. "... It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but offered no ladder upon which to get out." (Douglass 36)

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The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.

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Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of

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“Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass is a personal narrative which describes a specific time in his childhood when he was learning to read and write. Born as a slave in the pre-Civil War south, Douglass was not expected to be literate. However, through strong ambition, Douglass overcame restrictions and stereotypes placed on slaves and taught himself to read and write. Later in his life, Frederick Douglass wrote down this story in his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845. Today, students and adults can enjoy this narrative on how he overcame the struggles of learning how to read and write.

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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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1727 Words | 7 Pages

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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Douglass’s master forbade his wife from continuing to teach Douglass the alphabet because his master

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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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However, literacy turns out to be not only bliss, but also painful. Indeed, while learning to read Frederick becomes more and more aware of the injustices of slavery, and this leads him to regret this knowledge “Learning how to read had become a curse rather than a blessing” ( Douglass ) . Douglass believes in the importance of education. He thinks that education is a key part to our life; it is the only way to get freedom. Literacy is very powerful because it can set anyone free to pursue dreams.

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