History Is A Weapon Analysis

Are we as citizens considered free? Are all of the amendments that are stated in the Bill of Rights met? The world may ask, “ What freedom would you like to be expressed or expanded?” The freedom that should be expanded is the freedom to educate. The freedom to educate should be expanded because, as you should know slaves were not allowed to educate themselves. I know this because when reading an earlier document, “ History is a Weapon,” which states, “Knowledge was power, and virtually all slave codes established in the United States set restrictions making it illegal to teach slaves to read or write.” Also, you have people who are over our education like Betsy DeVos. She is taking a lot of money out of title one schools. Abraham’s speech also had a role in education.

To start this off, in a later text called, “ History is a Weapon,” the author was stating that the slaves were not allowed to read and write because the slave owners thought that having this type of power would help them rebel.

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

educated.
Then you have people who are now in charge of our education who did not even know how the education system works like Betsy DeVos. She believes that the government should not put any money into the “ Tidal One” schools. She believes that HBCU schools are the “ pioneers”- the top school choice. This can be confirmed in CNNNEWS.COM Betsy DeVos states, “ HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice. They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality.” What Ms. DeVos fails to realize is the main reason why HBCU schools were created for in the first place, which were in response to racist Jim Crow laws in the south that enforced segregation. This separated black students from white schools.
In another piece such as, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” Fredrick Douglass was saying the manhood of every slave was taken away. This is stated in paragraph six, which states, “ It is admitted in the fact that southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or write.”