The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written in 1845, is a very powerful and inspiring autobiography that, shows the brutality given to slaves, and the value of knowledge. Frederick Douglass believed in education and the power it possess, and I too now understand the true virtue of education. Nowadays many people take school for granted, and do not realise the importance knowledge has and the influence it has on a human’s life. The dropout rates have drastically increased, and the statement that society is becoming more intelligent, to some extent is in fact a fallacy. Although many may bicker that the previous statement is ridiculous, this will be explained further along. Frederick Douglass throughout his life understood the
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He stated, “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.” The slaves were so deprived to the point where they do not have the luxury of knowing how old they are. The statement the knowledge is power is in fact genuine. Although slaves do not have the privilege of knowledge, there were seldom occasions where, some slaves, were granted education, but even though they were educated, they were educated at a minimal level. Frederick Douglass was one of the few fortunate people to have a taste of being willingly educated, until On page 26 Frederick states, “Mrs. Auld kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C… “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master--to do as he is told to do.” Mr. Auld keeps going on and on about how, if you teach a slave to read and write, he will be of no use to them anymore because he would become unmanageable. This demonstrates how important and valuable knowledge was. Could you imagine not being able to go school at all, throughout your whole life. You may not realise the precious gift that you granted freely, but let’s just put this into perspective that, people were willing to get whipped and tormented just read a …show more content…
I am fascinated by the fact that people were willing to die, just to read a book, and nowadays, we have to beg people just to pick up a pencil. I stand by my statement that the statement that society is becoming more intelligent, to some extent is in fact a fallacy. I feel like, because public education is granted freely to mainly anyone in the United States, many people don’t see the importance of gaining knowledge, and do not have the zeal to push themselves and achieve greatness. I may be completely wrong, but this is what I believe is the case
He stated, “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.” The slaves were so deprived to the point where they do not have the luxury of knowing how old they are. The statement the knowledge is power is in fact genuine. Although slaves do not have the privilege of knowledge, there were seldom occasions where, some slaves, were granted education, but even though they were educated, they were educated at a minimal level. Frederick Douglass was one of the few fortunate people to have a taste of being willingly educated, until On page 26 Frederick states, “Mrs. Auld kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C… “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master--to do as he is told to do.” Mr. Auld keeps going on and on about how, if you teach a slave to read and write, he will be of no use to them anymore because he would become unmanageable. This demonstrates how important and valuable knowledge was. Could you imagine not being able to go school at all, throughout your whole life. You may not realise the precious gift that you granted freely, but let’s just put this into perspective that, people were willing to get whipped and tormented just read a …show more content…
I am fascinated by the fact that people were willing to die, just to read a book, and nowadays, we have to beg people just to pick up a pencil. I stand by my statement that the statement that society is becoming more intelligent, to some extent is in fact a fallacy. I feel like, because public education is granted freely to mainly anyone in the United States, many people don’t see the importance of gaining knowledge, and do not have the zeal to push themselves and achieve greatness. I may be completely wrong, but this is what I believe is the case