Education plays a fundamental role in every person's life. It allows us to think creatively and express our thoughts, and even obtain jobs. The slaves did not have access to schools or education, and therefore, most could not read or write. The ability to read and write enables you to apply your freedom of speech more effectively. Given that the slaves were not educated enough to read and write and obtain the same information that their slave owners possessed, they did not feel empowered with knowledge to act on securing their freedom and encouraged to seek something more than bondage. One of the ways the slave masters kept the slaves at bay was to tell them that if they rebelled against their master they would be disobeying the word of God. If the slaves had access to, and could read, the Bible they would realize that this was not true and become “unmanageable”. The slaves would realize that the Bible sends a message of love and not hate, and that it teaches that God is no respecter of persons and neither should we be. Other books contained useful information that would open up the understanding of the slaves regarding the world and the practice of slavery as being something frowned upon by others. Education is knowledge, and knowledge is power.
“Education and slavery were incompatible with each other.” - ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’, chapter 7, page 22.
Great post! I think an idiom for the slaves in relation to education is "ignorance is bliss" because if one does not have the knowledge of a better life, one does not want one.
ReplyDeleteGreat job! The part you added from the book about the bible really added meaning to your post. If slaves were not taught to read or write and didn't receive basic schooling how did Fredrick Douglas become such a successful person?
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job! Many slave owners during his time used the lack of education that slaves had as a way to keep slaves under control without having to worry about a rebellion.
ReplyDeleteInsightful post! I wonder how different U.S. history would be if more slave were literate?
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I really liked the point that you made about connecting reading and writing to the ability to vote.
ReplyDeleteI remeber reading that the lack of education itself was reason enough to have slaves be content with their lives; they simply didn't have access or even knowledge to any other alternative and thus accepted their fates.
ReplyDeleteI love how you talked about how they would be a lot more aware of there mistreatment if they had education
ReplyDeleteThe slave masters thought that keeping slaves uneducated was the best way to make sure there was no uprising. I think that was some of what you proved during your post. Very interesting how you connected the bible and God into the post. They did discuss it a lot in the book.
ReplyDeleteYou stated that "The ability to read and write enables you to apply your freedom of speech more effectively." Since slaves didn't have the freedom of speech, how does this affect them directly and indirectly?
ReplyDeleteThey were never able to voice themselves, and have other people know about it because they didn't know how to write a letter about it, or they couldn't read about their rights. Even though they were a person of color, they had rights as a person and a child of God.
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DeleteI really enjoyed how you linked it to education and the Bible, really puts it into perspective of someone's potential values. Great post!
ReplyDeleteInteresting. While a common observation, the amount of detail you went into about the reasoning was insightful.
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