Essay On Frederick Douglass And Education

Slave owners thought that it was immoral to teach slaves to read and write. When Mr. Auld discovered that his wife was teaching Douglass to write, his argument against it was that educating slaves is not only detrimental to slave owners, but also to the slaves. It is interesting that he showed concern for a slave’s well being in his argument, as slavery itself is a cruel and oppressive institution. Mr. Auld explained to his wife that if Douglass were to be educated, he would become discontented with his circumstances. If slaves were to be educated in history and government, they would understand that slaves were wrongly stolen from Africa by Americans. When slaves learned to read and write, they could understand the written works of abolitionists. These new sources of knowledge would not help better a slave’s situation. In many cases, as in Douglass’s own life, education only made slaves more miserable and angry. It is the lack of knowledge that …show more content…
It was not immoral for Douglass to learn to read and write even though he knew it was prohibited for him to do so; it was only illegal. Douglass’s act of breaking the law was in no way immoral, because the law itself was immoral. I believe that people are morally obligated to break unjust laws, so Douglass had every right to learn to read and write. In fact, it was the best choice he could have made. Education is a human right that Douglass had every right to pursue. He did not have a strong desire to read or write until Mrs. Auld introduced it to him. When she was angry with Douglass for educating himself, she should have simply been angry with herself for teaching him the alphabet in the first place. He was not wrong in attempting to learn, and she was not wrong in beginning to teach him. The immoral act in this case was that she made efforts to prevent him from educating himself after giving him that initial taste of knowledge. It was Mrs. Auld who was in the wrong. Douglass was only a victim of