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Economic effects of the slave trade
Human right against slavery
Economic effects of the slave trade
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Some people make say that ignorance is bliss. Ignorance may be bliss, but ignorance is also the key to keeping a person submissive. The definition of ignorance is: lack of knowledge or information. This may be bliss to some people, but to the slaves of early America, it was the most powerful tool used against them to keep them as slaves. It is much harder to keep someone enslaved if they are educated. During the time of slavery in America it was illegal to educate slaves. Slaves weren’t considered people, they were considered property and were treated as such. Since they were property they didn’t have any rights, including the right to education. The The slave owners wanted to keep the slaves in the dark. They wanted them to be uneducated
Douglass was motivated to learn how to read by hearing his master condemn the education of slaves. Mr. Auld declared that an education would “spoil” him and “forever unfit him to be a slave” (2054). He believed that the ability to read makes a slave “unmanageable” and “discontented” (2054). Douglass discovered that the “white man’s power to enslave the black man” (2054) was in his literacy and education. As long as the slaves are ignorant, they would be resigned to their fate. However, if the slaves are educated, they would understand that they are as fully human as the white men and realize the unfairness of their treatment. Education is like a forbidden fruit to the slave; therefore, the slave owners guard against this knowledge of good and evil. Nevertheless, D...
Many issues kept Reconstruction from helping the newly freed slaves. For instance, the vast majority of former slaves were uneducated. In many southern states, before and during the Civil War, the educating of slaves was illeg...
To start, there is proof that slaves were not allowed to learn. Fredrick Douglass states “I have no accurate knowledge of my age…I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday.” In Nightjohn, Sarny also doesn’t know her age. The only way she had an idea of her age was because of a stick that gets marked every summer. “I never knew a slave escaping with his life from Bayou Bouef. One reason is, they are not allowed
Although former slaves were allowed to attend schools, some whites believed that they were not as capable of learning as the white man. Robert E. Lee, in an interview before Joint Committee on Reconstruction (Doc. B) answered a question on the black mans capability to learn. He stated, “I do not think that he is as capable of acquiring knowledge as the white man is”. But, long denied the right to learn, many African-Americans, both young and old, took advantage of teachers willing to set up schools to teach former slaves.
Education is a privilege. The knowledge gained through education enables an individual’s potential to be optimally utilized owing to training of the human mind, and enlarge their view over the world. Both “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass himself and “Old Times on the Mississippi” by Mark Twain explore the idea of education. The two autobiographies are extremely different; one was written by a former slave, while the other was written by a white man. Hence, it is to be expected that both men had had different motivations to get an education, and different processes of acquiring education. Their results of education, however, were fairly similar.
Newman says that the scope of education should broaden and encourage more learning outside of the career track, while Freire says how the material is learned should be broadened and laid out where it is learned for its entirety and not just its basic ideas. They feel that “the learned professions altogether... [are] the most popularly beneficial and… most intimately divine of all human pursuits” (Newman, 57). Simply said, education is something of high importance that should be desired and acquired by all. If one does not embrace education, he or she will not gain knowledge or understand its importance. Fredrick Douglass, a famous slave that worked to gain knowledge, and ultimately helped abolish slavery understands this concept. In his biography, “Learning to Read,” he describes his struggle of learning to read and write. He says, “I wished to learn… [and] after a long, tedious effort for years, I finally succeeded in learning” (Douglas, 50). As a slave, being educated was a difficult task, but Douglass understood its importance and desired to pursue it. At first, he despised, the education, “while they [(the arguments in the Columbian Orator)] relieved me of one difficulty, they brought on another even more painful than the one of which I was relieved,” but it eventually lead to his understanding of “abolition” and helped him free “[him]self and fellow-slaves” (48,49). The education Douglass learns from the Columbian Orator and local newspapers, among other places, is a prime example of liberal knowledge. He learned it “for the sake of knowing it.” Douglass’s example solidifies Newman’s idea that liberal education is valuable because it is proven to have “value and dignity” (Newman, 58). His example also exemplifies Freire’s point that “Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it” (65). Freire believes that one
Because the American slave system was based on this principle of human chattlehood, slaves were confined in many ways that handicapped them from even being able to act or live as a human being. The very idea of human chattelhood gave the master unlimited control over his defenseless slave. Chattels are not permitted to get married, acquire or hold property. Chattels cannot have rights and hence the slave has no rights. Chattels can be bought and sold and so justifies the existence of the slave trade. Chattels do not have any claim to legal protection, therefore the slave has none and must tolerate the cruelties of slavery. Chattels are not to be educated or instructed in religion. And lastly, chattels do not possess the freedom of speech and of the press.
Ignorance played a big role throughout the book. It was believed that it was better for a slave to have ignorance than knowledge because with ignorance, the slaves have no reasons to leave. However, with knowledge, the slaves would be able to write their own passes. In addition, they would try to escape because they know they could do better. “It was dangerous to educate slaves, they warned. Education made blacks dissatisfied with slavery. It spoiled them for field work” (236). Leaving a black person ignorant of education and such will prevent slaves from developing self-worth and wanting to leave for a better life. For this reason, leaving the slave ignorant is what many slaveholders do.
Slave owners not only broke slave families up, but they also tried to keep all the slaves illiterate. In the book slave owners thought, "A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master-to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. If you teach a slave how to read, they would become unmangeable and have no value to his master." Masters thought that if a slave became literate then they would rebel and get other slaves to follow them. Also masters lied to slaves saying learning would do them no good, only harm them. They tried using that reverse psychology to make it seem like what they were doing was right.
Slaves were subject to harsh working conditions, malicious owners, and illegal matters including rape and murder. In many instances, slaves were born into slavery, raised their families in slavery, and died within the captivity of that same slavery. These individuals were not allowed to learn how to read, write, and therefore think for themselves. This is where the true irony begins to come into light. While we have been told our entire lives that education and knowledge is the greatest power available to everyone under the sun, there was a point in time where this concept was used to keep certain people under others. By not allowing the slaves to learn how to read, then they were inevitably not allowing the slaves to form free thoughts. One of my favorite quotes is that of Haruki Murakami, “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, then you can only think what everyone else is thing.” This applied in magnitudes to those who didn’t get to read at all. Not only were these individuals subject to the inability to think outside the box, but for most of these their boxes were based upon the information the slaves owners allowed them to
I know this because in the first paragraph of, “ History is a Weapon,” which states, “ Whereas the teaching of slaves to read and write, has a tendency to excrite dissatisfaction in their minds, and to produce insurrection and rebellion, to manifest injury of the citizens of this state.” what I feel the author was trying to say is that if they were smart enough to read and write, then they had the intelligence to rebel upon the owners, and they could find ways to reverse what was done to them. Education is a dangerous weapon, and it pays to be
in the film Slave owner value literacy because they think that it has too much power for the black people. They can use the literacy to write passes for slaves to leave and get past slave owners worker and they can teach other slaves how to read. They can threaten their authority and they can know their net worth by how much they are worth and how much the other people worth that are in slavery. An we could blackmail people if we know how to read and write messages to the people up north to come set the slaves free that why the slaves back then valued the life of literacy that why literacy is important to them. They fought for the right to read and write so they can read and write and their kids after
When a person is ignorant, he has a lack of knowledge, this means that he has to capacity to learn. I see ignorance every day, in my peers, my parents, and even myself. In my life I try to use my ignorance to drive me. Knowing your ignorance can give you a boost when it comes to
We all suffer from being ignorant. Is it possible to end your ignorance? According to the Buddhist theory it is. It is possible to end your ignorance and all personal desire to eventually become enlightened and reach Nirvana, which is utter peace. Ending your ignorance will in turn end suffering. The Buddha taught that there were many natural occurrences that led up to ignorance and that we all are capable of liberating ourselves from. It is true that we all have desires that our unmet and it causes problems in our lives. It is also true that the world is full of hunger, war, death, and over all misery and pain. But what would our world be without problems. If we all were enlightened and free of all our ignorance then our lives and world would be incredibly boring and uneventful. We don’t like having problems and challenges but our lives are about working through problems and overcoming and learning. Ignorance does cause many problems but knowing everything about our world can often bring you down instead of up. Losing ignorance is very important in maturing and evolving as a person but losing your ignorance is not the end to all your suffering. There is no end to suffering, there are breaks but there is no end.
People with more knowledge keep their lead in knowledge by filtering or taking knowledge from others. This tactic is done to keep those with power in power and force everyone else to do their commands or suppress personal growth mentally and/or socially. It is no secret that people have had slaves in most nations if not all, but slaves will be kept inferior mentally to suppress any uprising against those that keep them in bondage. In America black slaves were outlawed to read and wright so that they could not get smart enough to plan a rebellion or seek equality. This is because it is a lot easier to control someone that is mentally lacking in comparison. This tactic has been used in most slaves-allowed nation over the years and more often than not when the slaves or oppressed people gain the knowledge that they are begin denied those people rise up and take their freedom and equality. W.E.B de Bois, Booker T Washin...