The Effect of Education on the Pursuit of Freedom Essay Example

confidence and a stronger determination to escape after reading The Columbian Orator. Writing enables a slave to express the details of their slavery experience through text, while not knowing how to write limits them to speaking only. Those who can write can publish books sharing their slavery experiences and expose the cruelty of slavery more efficiently than public speaking. If a slave cannot write, they cannot share their side of the story. Learning to read and write gives slaves a sense of confidence, capability, self-sufficiency, and independence. Slaves are deprived of basic information like their birthday and parental identity that white children take for granted and can freely access.

Depriving slaves of the opportunity to read and write eliminates their individuality, but when they acquire these abilities, they become more introspective and self-reliant. The absence of ignorance enables them to contemplate fresh concepts and opinions, which leads them to scrutinize the unfairness of their predicament and eventually harbor strong animosity towards their owner.

Frederick Douglass emphasizes the importance of education as a means to achieve freedom in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. He reveals his reluctance to live and die as just another slave without knowledge or liberty. According to him, obtaining an education is necessary for understanding and experiencing true freedom. Through learning how to read and write, Frederick Douglass broadens his understanding and develops a sense of self-identity.

As he reads additional works from those opposed to slavery, his understanding of freedom and human rights grows.