Frederick Douglass :: essays research papers

Frederick Douglass once give tongue to, " there can be no license without education." I believe this statement is true. During slavery, slaves were kept il literate person so they would non rebel and become free. Many slaves were stripped from their families at an early develop so they would retain no sense of compassion towards family members. Some slaves take flight the brutal and harsh life of slavery, most who were uneducated. But can there be any real freedom without education?     Freedom is something galore(postnominal) slaves never had the opportunity to witness. They were simply uneducated, illiterate machines who did whatever they were told. But fewer fortunate slaves were given the gift to be educated by someone. nonpareil of these fortunate persons was named Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born a slave. He never had the chance of designed his mother. As mentioned before, slaves were stripped from their families, leaving them no sens e of compassion. In the book, The chronicle of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass says, "Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and awake care, I received the tidings of her death with much of the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger."(2) Douglass on the QT met with his mother about 4 times during his whole life. He said he never really got to know her being he was that a child and the never had much of a conversation. These sorts of incidents happened to slaves throughout the States and permanently scarred most slaves and their families.      Slave owners not only stony-broke slave families up, moreover 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 high hat nigger in the world. If you teach a slave how to read, they woul d 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 get the hang lied to slaves saying learning would do them no good, only vilify them. They tried using that reverse psychology to make it seem give care what they were doing was right.