Frederick Douglass Education Essay

761 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: American education in the 1800's

Freedom in education
Education is the key to freedom. In Frederick Douglass’ autobiography he takes you back to 19th century america where slavery is a part of everyday life and black men were treated not as people, but as commodities, toiling in the hot sun for hours on end with nothing in return. The life of a slave in 19th century america was indeed a troublesome one. The black men were kept ignorant by their white masters, without education, the slaves did not think of themselves as people. They lacked a free thinking mind which lead them to believe everything their white masters told them. For Frederick Douglas however, this was not the case. He was educated by Mrs. Auld and thus generated a mind that didn't conform with his white masters …show more content…

Since the slaves were not educated, they don’t really have an intelligent view of themselves, they just feel like they are property and nothing more than that. When Frederick Douglas becomes educated, he thinks of himself as a real person and not just someone's property and this eventually leads to him escaping slavery. As stated by Mr. Auld, “ Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now, if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy." (chapter 6)“ Mr. Auld states why it's so important for the slaves be kept uneducated. If a slave learned to read, he would no longer be satisfied to be a slave and want to be more. In Mr. Auld's mind, this would "ruin" the slaves and cause them to not want to work on the plantations anymore. This is an important key that shows how slave masters keep their slaves from rebelling and running …show more content…

When Frederick Douglas started his small school to teach the slaves, the slaves did not know what a real education was for the most part, but they still wanted to come and learn from Douglas because of their desire to be something more than just property. "These dear souls came not to Sabbath school because it was popular to do so, nor did I teach them because it was reputable to be thus engaged. Every moment they spent in that school, the were liable to be taken up, and given thirty-nine lashes. They came because they wished to learn. Their minds had been starved by their cruel masters. They had been shut up in mental darkness. I taught them, because it was the delight of my soul to be doing something that looked like bettering the condition of my race." (Chapter 10). The slaves desire to learn outweighed their fear of punishment for being caught, they put themselves in harms way by going to learn from Douglas. They freed themselves from their constant fear of the white men and empowered themselves with

Show More
Related

  • Education is Key in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    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 ...

    Read More

  • Learning to Read and Write: The Story of Frederick Douglass

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frederick Douglas was born into the slave trade in Talbot County, Maryland. He was sent to work on a plantation for the Hugh’s Family for about seven years. This is the location where his learning truly began. His mistress was a “kind, tender-hearted, woman” who treated Frederick as a human instead of property the family owned. This was a dangerous thing for both parties at this time in history it was considered wrong. Frederick States “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me” which I see the connection he had made to her change of personality because of slavery. She had heavenly qualities that slavery was able to divest from her. It was injurious to Fredrick not only for the lashings a salve would receive but to have his former teacher stopped teaching him. Beginning to follow her husband’s teaching who forbid her to teach the slaves she became violent. Douglas says “nothing made her more angry than to see me with a newspapers” and that resulted in her rushing Frederick with a face of fury taking the paper away. His former mistress who gave him his first lesson expressed her new found apprehension to education and slavery co-existing. His mistress gave him an inch by teaching Douglas the alphabet now he was about to take the mile. He began to make friends with the white boys he would meet in the streets while running errands in town. Frederick always took a book and bread when he left for town. The boys who were willing to teach him would be paid in bread which he was allowed to have plenty of. The white boys who were teaching him where considerable poor in comparison to the family that referred to Frederick “chattel”. Young Frederick spoke powerful words to two his teachers who lived on Phil...

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Heroism Essay

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order for Douglass to reach his goal of becoming a free man he thought the only way out was education. He needed to learn how to read, write, and think for himself about what slavery was. Since literacy and education were so powerful to Frederick he persevered to get himself the education he wanted. …. Douglass knew it wouldn’t be easy, but that didn’t stop him. Douglass realized the “ conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with a high hope, and

    Read More

  • Teaching Frederick Douglass in American School Systems

    1609 Words  | 4 Pages

    With the increasing popularity of educational standards and standardized testing many are beginning to ask, "What is the purpose of education?" Is the goal of education to fill students' minds with a curriculum of facts, or is it to prepare them to be productive members of society? If the answer to this question is the latter of those two, what do they need to know in order to be good citizens and how should that be taught? Tolerance is one issue that educators are leaning towards in their own curriculum. Over the years Americans have made advancements in the area of tolerance, yet there are still some presuppositions that lurk within society. The best way to deal with this issue is to educate people with the truth and provide them with opportunities to see the world through the eyes of one who is oppressed. Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself invites readers into the life of one who is oppressed so that they might see of how damaging intolerance is for those who are enslaved by its prejudices as well as those who hold those harsh sentiments. For this very reason Douglass serves as an excellent resource to personalize issues such as these and bring them into an academic light where teachers and students can open their minds to tolerating and defending differences.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Injustice Essay

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    He had long fought to learn to read and was so excited and eager to do so, he never expected the circumstances of this to be as dehumanizing as they were. He regretted learning to read because it brought him nothing but desperation, he learned his awful truth and that of his fellow slaves. "It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy." (Douglass, 24) The truth was that the more he learned the more he became aggravated, he knew there was not much he could do. It brought his moral down along with many other feelings, even a slave like Frederick had learned the awful feeling of

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass: Escaping Slavery through Literacy

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Chapter 6 Of Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mr. Auld believed that teaching a slave was not only a bad idea, but also against the law. Douglass said, “Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world.” At this point, Douglass mentioned that he had a completely new realization, a new thought that black men are slaves because of their lack of knowledge. Douglass understands the main function that literacy plays in a white-dominated society during that time. Teaching a few things to a young slave will make him "unmanageable" and "unfit" to perform his job as a slave. Education will raise a slave’s self-conscious mind and help him to understand the value of a free life. Douglass thought without education the slave would never learn what he should have, and what he is missing. He was in a dark place where the rest of the slaves knew nothing about a free life. He believed only education could give them their desired life. If he learned to read, then he wouldn't have to be a slave anymore. T...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Learning To Read And Write By Frederick Douglass

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fredrick Douglas is a well known figure in the abolishment movement through his narrative “Learning to Read and Write,” Douglas shares his own personal journey of how he learns to read and write. His organization helps the reader get a better grasp of the stages in his life; his innocence, his epiphany, his loathing and finally his determination. Through the use of syntax and diction, metaphors and the use of irony, he portrays the thoughts that went through his mind as a slave.

    Read More

  • Breaking Barriers: Frederick Douglass's Fight for Education

    1323 Words  | 3 Pages

    In life there will always be someone who says it cannot be done, but that does not always stop an individual from achieving his or her goals in life. Frederick Douglass wrote the article of his life experience, “Learning to Read and Write.” Douglass explains the struggles he went through as a slave just to learn to read and write. During this time period slaves were not taught how to read and write; therefore, he had to do this on his own. Douglass fought a battle of breaking through the ideas that a slave should not and could not be educated. Today many people fight a similar battle to achieve their goals. Many just give in to society as many slaves did in the past. In life people are not always given the opportunities that allow them to advance

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Argumentative Essay

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    Frederick Douglass is known through the eyes of many as a passionate abolitionist, who worked to gain rights for the African American population. In reality, he was much more than this. As an adult he was a prized author, an editor of a newspaper, a lecturer, and a salesman (Schmitt, 1). Such accomplishments were not gained overnight, though, his journey was a long one riddled with pain and challenges. He began his life as a slave, raised by his grandparents (3). As he grew older and more useful he was moved around to other plantations, at one of with he learned to read under the watchful eye of his master’s wife (5). After a few years here, it was observed by his masters that he had become “softened” by the relaxed life of a city slave, so he was sent to a renowned slave beater to be straightened out. To their dismay, by this point in his life Douglass was strong and courageous, and after six months at the hands of the slave beater he began fighting back (6). Scared of what Douglass would do to his reputation, the slave beater sent the boy back to his previous owner. It was at this time Douglass planned his escape to New York. At the age of 20 he made his move (7). Once free, Douglass lived

    Read More

  • Freedom In Douglas's The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    Douglass tells the story of Sophia Auld, the wife of his slave master, who almost taught him to read. Douglass says “she [Ms. Auld] kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C,” and “assisted me in learning to spell words” (63). Douglass notes Ms. Auld as a good slave master who reduced the “dehumanizing effects of slavery” (63). Unfortunately, as Douglass mentions, the slave code and Mr. Auld “forbade” any instruction because it was “unlawful to teach a slave to read” (63). The code forbids reading because, as Mr. Auld says “Learning would spoil the best n-- in the world,” which references the supremacy that masters wish to maintain over their slaves (63). In addition, by forcing slaves to remain illiterate, the law trapped slaves in the vicious cycle of slavery by not offering them any skills to end the cycle. The ban on education restricted a slave 's right to liberty by forcing them to remain ignorant about the world and socially oppressing them. The ban on education also restricts Douglass’s right to the pursuit of happiness by preventing him from pursuing his passion. Douglass’s description of the slave code and its ban on education probes into the reader 's moral conscience by forcing them to understand the restrictions that slavery placed on the rights to liberty and the pursuit of

    Read More

  • Essay On Learning To Read And Write By Frederick Douglass

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    Douglass was not aware of what slaves were and why they were treated in a bad condition before he learns how to read. He was deeply saddened upon discovering the fact that slaves were not given the rights every human being should have. In an effort to clarify Douglass’s feelings of anguish, he states: “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow slaves for their stupidity” (Douglass 146). The fact that other slaves are content with their lives is what brings awareness to him because he knows that he is stripped of basic human rights. He envies his fellow slaves due to the reason that they are pleased with the life he cannot live to like anymore. Also, he is often wishing he never learned how to read because he doesn’t want to burden about his life. Douglass knows more about the disturbing conditions than most of the slaves around him, but he greatly regrets it. Before he started reading, he lived very much in contentment and now he cannot stand the fact of being

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Literacy Essay

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slaveowners during the mid 19th century treated their slaves as nothing more than laboring animals, for the one and only purpose of carrying out their “masters” orders. But literacy was not coincidentally separated from the slaves lives. “Mr. Auld found out and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read “(45). This quote occurs in the book, when Douglass’s new owner Mrs. Auld (whom is new to slave owning), teaches Douglass to read. Mr. Auld finds out and forbids Mrs. Auld to teach him further. Mr. Auld describes teaching slaves to read as unlawful and unsafe. To describe something as unsafe, is to imply it has the power to threaten someone or somethings safety. In this case the safety is the white mans ability to control and suppress slaves. Douglass from this experience is disappointed that his education has been interrupted. Even though it becomes more difficult to learn to read after that, Douglass learns something even more important from the experience: the mysterious power of education. The fact that Mr. Auld doesn 't want him to read, shows him that there 's something valuable there, making him want to learn to read even more. “… if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read,

    Read More

  • Learning To Read And Write By Frederick Douglass Analysis

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Life Should Be A Lesson To Future Generations Essay

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frederick Douglass' life should be a lesson to future generations. Frederick was not an ordinary slave, but he was an incredibly bold man. He was not happy with the unruly beatings that he got from all of his masters. Frederick fought against the injustice that faced him and wanted to be something more than just a slave. Throughout his life he came across many different problems, but with his courage he overcame them.

    Read More

More about Frederick Douglass Education Essay

Open Document