The most impression sentences of me are “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master–to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now,” said he, “if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy”. “I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty–to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom”. Douglass realized that how to get rid of slavery and being freedom. The most important way is to improve slaver’s social status, and the best way to raise their position is to be educated. If a slave understands how to read and write, he or she can propagandize by writing books or public how slavery inhuman such as Douglass himself. Or when they have enough knowledge of technology, their social status will be increase, and get more respect because they are more valuable than illiterate slaves. Douglass understands “the white man’s power to enslave the black man” because white man monopoly of knowledge and education, the black man doesn’t have the opportunity to study, which means the black people will not have a weapon to break their chains. I quite agree with this view. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, my country and people also suffering from famine, plague, war, and the imperialist invasion. Many people were trying to save themselves, they all chose to be international students. Once they finished their study, they came back to China and used their knowledge to construct our land. Because of that, I chose the same way with the revolutionaries. Knowledge is a weapon.
Jiayang, I’m glad that you were able to find a way to connect Douglass’ autobiography to your own life experience. As you know, the passage you selected is one of the most important “turning points” in Douglass’ life story. Of course, at the time when he first learns to read, Douglass has no idea that he will eventually make his way to the North, become a freed man, and work as an activist and abolitionist, but he does know that education will be an integral part of his path forward. We can continue to think about access to education with this story in mind.