Frederick Douglass: The Life Of A Slave

Frederick Douglass was one of the few slaves that was able to escape the bonds of slavery through his education and knowledge.The life of a slave is a strenuous one, filled with both physical and psychological torture. It’s only natural to want to escape from that kind of life but to escape there was only two options, running away, which mostly led to getting caught and receiving more heinous punishments. The other option is using knowledge as a safe and sure way to leave slavery. Education is like a double sided sword it allowed Douglass to gain freedom but at the same time it showed Douglass the true horrors of slavery. Education and knowledge can be valuable assets to gain freedom for slaves, but it also allows slaves to see the true barbarity …show more content…
As most slaves are born into there oppressed life they do not have the opportunity to gain any education. The masters take advantage of the slaves lack of education and use it against the slaves to oppress them. The reasons the slave-owners are afraid of education is that if the majority of the slaves gain education and knowledge than a rebellion is sure to come. Frederick Douglass was one of the few slaves who realized this and he went through many torments to gain his knowledge which eventually lead to his freedom.
The way to freedom is education,but that comes at a cost.In Narrative life of Frederick Douglass he states “I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy….” In this quote Douglass talks about how even though he is gaining his freedom through education it feels it to be a curse. The reasons being that education has also displayed the true conditions that the slaves were in at the time. Douglass saw the disease of slavery through education but it did …show more content…
A slave seldom dies but that his death is attributed to trickery.” Douglass’ master, Covey was trying to take advantage over him in this quote and this is time Douglass stood up against the injustice happening to him. Every other slave was in fear of the master, because of their lack of education they couldn't see they outnumbered Covey, they continued to obeyed every one of the order he spoke. Douglass was the only one who realized that there was nothing to fear, he was able to see this because of his knowledge and to everyone's surprise he stood against Covey.They both went through a scuffle and Douglass managed to get the better of Covey.To all the slaves watching and even the master himself, this was unheard of.A slave rebelling against orders and over powering the master. After the strife a punishment would be typically given to the slave, but none was given to Frederick Douglass,it seemed as if Douglass had won the respect of Covey after he stood up for himself.The other slaves believed of another “power” that allowed Douglass to win that fight and escape unscathed,they were ignorant to the truth.This was when Douglas saw that without education,his fellow slaves were blind to the truth. Frederick had gained knowledge and using that education he saw the naked truth of slavery, of how barbaric and inhuman the oppression actually was. Despite this no one else had taken a stand with Douglass. The ignorance