Summary Of Frederick Douglass Education Is The Key To Freedom

In the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” he shares throughout his story the value of an education. Douglass also talks about how education and slavery are incompatible with one another. This makes it very difficult for a slave to reach or become free due to the fact that according to Douglass “education was the key to freedom.” Below the hardships and constant battle of Frederick Douglass will be analyzed, with regard to how as a slave education was so crucial for people who were not in positions with a need for learning.
When talking about the role that education played in Douglass’s story, one must see that it was one of if not the biggest parts of his narrative. Education was a way to freedom according to Douglass. He felt that slaves could only become free by learning how to read, write, and have an overall educational base to build up on. While Douglas felt that education was his way to freedom, it also leads to him fully understanding the horrors of slavery.
He states that, “education and slavery were incompatible with each other.” (31). One view of this is that many people were very afraid of slaves becoming educated because they would take their jobs. Another possibility was slave owners became angry and worried over having an educated slave because he may try to outsmart them, or would lead to larger issues. Whatever reason people had for having slaves was nothing more than complete and utter ignorance. As stated above education really lead to Douglass full understanding of slavery, therefore lead to him being more miserable. He talks about how he would question if learning was actually worth it, and this was caused by the constant demand for him to live within the system of slavery. Education and slavery couldn’t coexist because slavery as a whole did not make any use of education, due to all of the mental and actual freedom required to actually utilize