Kofi Annan (1938), a former secretary-general once said, “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” Knowledge is a source for progress and a tool for power. In his story as a slave, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass, a boy born into slavery, learns how to read and write. As a child, Douglass had no knowledge about his age, the date, or his biological father. During his early childhood, he had little to no contact with his mother. Soon after she died, he had no choice but to work on the plantation as a slave for the rest of his life without knowing his family. Throughout his life as a slave, multiple menacing slaveholders hold back Fredrick Douglass from his freedoms. They keep him from knowing the truth about slavery and restrict him from all learning. Douglass’ uses the power of knowledge to gain his freedom. Early on in his life, Douglass utilizes his resources and self educates. Not long after Mrs. Auld teaches Douglass the alphabet, Mr. Auld bans him from learning. Shortly after, Douglass finally understands,“ the white man’s power to enslave a black man” (Douglass 34). He realizes that through knowledge and opposition to his masters, he could finally gain the freedom that he deserved. In the article, “Profiles of Greatness: Frederick Douglass” written by Amy Anderson, Douglass, “made friends with poor white children who taught him reading fundamentals” (Anderson Profiles of Greatness: Frederick Douglass). While his masters refused to let him learn, Douglass finds a way to go around this obstacle and gets help learning how to read by the poor children in the neighborhood. Douglass continues his efforts in pursuing his goal of... ... middle of paper ... ...onists and other truths about slavery. It also gave him more confidence to resist the cruelty of Mr. Covey. Douglass’ efforts to teach the slaves came up to the point that one of the slaves attending the school became a free man. Utilizing his previous knowledge, Douglass plans for his escape. Even after escaping, Douglass applies his knowledge to help him succeed. After escaping Mr. Covey’s plantation and going to Massachusetts Douglass By using what he had learned previously, Douglass gains his freedom. Throughout his life, Douglass uses his drive to learn and knowledge to help him progress in life. He manages to learn to read and write and he transfers this knowledge to other aspects of his life like gaining his freedom and teaching others. Therefore, Douglass’ use of knowledge in learning how to read and write plays a major factor in his life for success.
While knowledge can open many doors for success, it can also put a lock on various ones for people who don’t have an opportunity to practice it. This is portrayed in an essay by Frederick Douglass named Learning to Read and Write. It portrays the hardships he faced and the toll it took on him. Frederick Douglass was a slave who was born in Talbot County Maryland and then became a server for a family in Baltimore. He also became an active participant in the abolitionist movement in 1838. Michael Scot’s response toward Frederick Douglass was that gaining knowledge was more of a dissatisfaction rather than a worthy accomplishment for the reason that education made him realize he had no other option to his condition. For Frederick Douglass, learning
Literacy plays an important part in helping Douglass achieve his freedom. Learning to read and write enlightened his mind to the injustice of slavery; it kindled in his heart longings for liberty. Douglass’s skills proved instrumental in his attempts of escape and afterwards in his mission as a spokesman against slavery.
One day, Douglass eavesdrops on him and Mrs. Auld’s conversation. Mr. Auld persuades her that reading “could do him (Douglass) no good, but a great deal of harm.” (page 39) This antithesis along with the rest of his statement makes Douglass come to the realization that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day on, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write,
Before Frederick Douglass went to Mr. Covey, he had several different masters, and previous to being sent to Covey, Douglass was a city slave. He had many freedoms, as he was able to be “better fed and clothed” (Douglass 35). This was a great advantage for Douglass, because being a city slave allowed him to feel closer
Although Douglass’s primary obstacle to educating himself was not money, he still was challenged by the standards of slavery. The text begins with how the standards of slavery transformed his Mistress from a tender-hearted woman who once treated him like a normal being into a corrupted person who displayed no sign of remorse for her immoral actions. According to Douglass, his Mistress had once educated him. After her transformation, he then recognized that she did every attempt to impede him from education himself. It is evident in the text when he stated:” Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper” (Douglass 73). However, despite the challenges that Douglass faced, he managed to find every other alternative to educate himself. Although he lacked the freedom to learn, Douglass lived in a house replete with food and essentials needed to sustain him a comfortable life. In exchange for knowledge, Douglass would offer bread to the white poor children in his neighborhood. Another way that Douglass educated himself was by writing on the Crates in the shipyard. He would observe the men that would write on the timber, labeling them. Lastly, while both Master Hugh and Douglass’s Mistress were gone, he would read books written by Hugh and eventually learned how to write the very same way as his
Gaining mental emancipation also made him a man. He had the power of knowledge and yet he didn't know the impact of being literate. He wasn't ready to have his world open right in front of him. Being able to read opened Douglass' eyes to what slavery really was. "He got the bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights."*(278) He saw things that he would have never seen if he had remained ignorant. He saw all the horrors and sadness of his life as a slave. He wasn't quite ready for the harsh realities that he was then exposed to. He felt that his master, Master Hugh, was right. Douglass learning to read brought him the discontentment, torment and anguish that Master Hugh said would follow if a slave learned how to read.* (279) The visions that Douglass saw was really affecting him. He saw things he never saw before. Dou...
When first introduced to Douglass and his story, we find him to be a young slave boy filled with information about those around him. Not only does he speak from the view point of an observer, but he speaks of many typical stereotypes in the slave life. At this point in his life, Frederick is inexperienced and knows nothing of the pleasures of things such as reading, writing, or even the rights everyone should be entitled to. Douglass knowing hardly anything of his family, their whereabouts, or his background, seems to be equivalent to the many other slaves at the time. As a child Frederick Douglass sees the injustices around him and observes them, yet as the story continues we begin to see a change.
Douglass as both the author and narrator in his novel took readers through his escape from slavery. Specifically mentioned in chapter seven of the book, the author expressed his new skill of reading and how that inspired his freedom. Douglass utilized rhetorical devices in chapter seven, such as pathos and personification to illustrate to his audience how his education motivated him to achieve liberation. Douglass’ effective use of emotion throughout the chapter made his experiences appeal to readers. Also, the first and last sentences of chapter seven served as bookends to show how education influenced Douglass’ freedom because within those two phrases there was a portion of Douglass’ journey told on how he escaped salvation. Lastly, Douglass’
Frederick Douglass’s “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave” recounts the life of Frederick Douglass as a slave on his journey to finding freedom. As a slave, he was treated as a second-rate citizen and was not taught how to be literate. Literacy is the ability to read and write. Slaves were robbed of the privilege of reading and writing and thus robbed of any educational means. Without these educational means, slaves were not allowed to grow in society and have a sense of capability within society. Instead, slaves were suppressed by the white man as property and forced to labor as the lowest part of society. Literacy is the education that separates humans from other forms of life and whites from slaves. Literacy
Slave owners in the South were some of the most cruel and inhumane human beings out there. They used many tactics to maintain a prosperous system of slavery amongst them. Like many, Frederick Douglass was born a slave. Deprived of as much as possible, Douglass knew not much more than his place of birth. Masters were encouraged to dispossess slaves of any knowledge and several of them did not know their birthdays or other personal details of themselves. The purpose of this was to keep slaves as misinformed of anything other than labor as possible. Slave owners knew the dangers that would upraise if slaves became literate and brave enough to fight for freedom.
From an early age, Frederick Douglass refused to accept the life of confinement into which he was born. The way he learned to write is a fine example of his exceptional resourcefulness and persistence to rise above. In The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Douglass's depiction of his self-education can be found on page 94...
In the essay “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass illustrates how he successfully overcome the tremendous difficulties to become literate. He also explains the injustice between slavers and slaveholders. Douglass believes that education is the key to freedom for slavers. Similarly, many of us regard education as the path to achieve a career from a job.
There are a number of key arguments in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. A few of which include inequality, education, and Christianity as the keys to freedom in terms of its true values within the institution of slavery. While Frederick Douglass made some key arguments, he also made common ground to make his appeal for the abolition of slavery.
Douglass views his education as his most important feature, but he also enables his brain to the realizing of the torture upon his fellow slaves. Douglass was not allowed to learn, because he was a slave, and they didn’t want slaves to become smarter than the whites. In the passage it states, “learning would ...
As a relatively young man, Frederick Douglass discovers, in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, that learning to read and write can be his path to freedom. Upon discovering that...