Freedom Can Be Earned by Education - Frederick Douglass

One of the, if not the most important, core values of the United States is freedom. Frederick Douglass believes that all men are born equal. Freedom depends on the current environment and circumstances. Naturally, some are treated better than others based on their abilities. Education and a sense of self are the means to achieve freedom, according to Douglass. Throughout the book, he comes to realizations concerning how to be free, but ultimately recognizes freedom as a combination of different aspects. In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” the functionality of freedom can only be earned, not given.

At first, Douglass thinks that the way to earn more freedom is by moving to a more formal or modern area. Douglass, an experienced slave, compares the environment of an urban area to a rural one by expressing that a “city slave is almost a free man, compared with a slave on the plantation. He is much better fed and clothed, and enjoys privileges altogether unknown to the slave on the plantation”. Slaves on the plantation are mistreated so significantly that the thought of being a slave somewhere else seems like a dream come true. The owners of slaves in the urban areas feel a sense of shame and guilt for the way southern rural slaves are treated. By granting better treatment of their slaves, they are trying to make up for the cruelty of plantations. They are willing to grant more liberty to their slaves but Douglass, however, still feels a sense of injustice occurring and begins his journey to reach freedom through education. Education and the acquirement of knowledge paves the way towards holistic liberation. The slave masters aimed to keep their slaves uneducated as they knew it would ruin the institution of slavery. In order to maintain the power they had, they had to keep knowledge locked away from the slaves. The slaves only needed to know that they were inferior and belonged in the fields or serving their master. Douglass explains that the slave owners made sure “the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant”. Douglass uses horses as a comparison to slaves to highlight the prejudice towards slaves. They are just as locked up and valuable as animals. There was no humanness to them, just labor. 

Freedom, according to both Douglass and the slave owners, could be earned by the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge could release the slaves from their ignorance towards their situation, enabling them to rise up and disrupt the systematic nature of slavery. Slave owners would no longer have control over their estates. A wild horse is useless if it cannot be tamed. Douglass sees the injustice taking place and begins to try to learn as much as possible and succeeds in becoming educated. However, he starts to question if education will fully grant him his liberty. He describes the set backs of education and how he 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. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out”. Douglass uses the analogies of a disease and a deep hole to give the reader a sense of hopelessness. There is a tone of despair and sadness signifying death. The disease of racism was inevitable fatal. The education gave him clear eyes to see what was happening all around him, but the racism and injustice could not be cured. The beautiful dream of obtaining knowledge became a nightmare. There was no escape out of this nightmare. Instead of liberation, Douglass became tortured by his inability to get out of the pit.

Douglass, after experiencing the ups and downs of education and urban slavery, rebells hoping to finally score freedom. He can no longer rest in the inequality occurring and fights his barbarous master. Douglass voices that the “battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free”. Douglass refers to being a slave as a career. Careers end as his title of slave did. He believes his determination towards liberty is like a fire waiting to burn. The encounter with his owner sparks his fire, and he feels like he has been born again. Douglass later escapes to the North and becomes a free man. However, he comes to the sad realization that a black man can never truly obtain absolute freedom.

He becomes overwhelmed by loneliness and paranoia as he was “yet a perfect stranger; without home and without friends, in the midst of thousand of my own brethren—children of a common Father, and yet I dared not to unfold to any one of them my sad condition. I was afraid to speak to any one for fear of speaking to the wrong one, and thereby falling into the hands of money-loving kidnappers, … the ferocious beasts of the forest”. Douglass does not have the freedom to trust anyone, not even his own people. He compares the white man with that of ferocious beasts to convey the cruelty of slavery. The white man did not care about the state of freedom concerning a back man. They were in business to pounce on a man’s life and dignity and sell it for a profit. Douglass feels the need to protect himself and sustain security. He must find those who are tolerant and enlightened to maintain and spread the knowledge of freedom.

In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” it is expressed that freedom has to be earned. It can never be given to a man. And although freedom can be earned, it must be done in sequences. First, one must be determined to obtain knowledge concerning their reality to liberate the mind. Following, that person must rise up in defiance of injustice and strive to live a progressive life. According to Frederick Douglass, the absence of any of these factors will hinder the achievement of freedom.