In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, when Douglass was older he was learning how to read and once he got caught, his master said “…if you teach a nigger (speaking of Douglass) 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.” These words meant greatly to Douglass as it gave him an idea on what education will do to a slave. By having education and learning of the world outside of the field, slaves would have been able to join together into the abolitionist movement but due to the fact that these masters would be ignorant to let an African American learn and educate themselves, all of this was prohibited and limited until there were some that actually were able to take the matter into hands. Douglass was one of the lucky ones to have a headstart in the understanding of what it meant to be educated in times like these. By learning how to read and how to write, these vulnerable humans would understand their rights and of the exploitation that they were receiving from their masters. “It would forever unfit him to be a slave” this brings back the idea that Douglass realized that being a slave was not something he wanted to do forever, and eventually he felt like physically he would keep being a slave because of his skin color but in reality in his mind, he was moving on and trying to feel freedom.
Yessenia, As we discussed in class, this is one of the moments that Douglass identifies as a turning point in his life, for exactly the reasons you cite here. Learning to read allows him to begin the process of imagining a future for himself that extends beyond his enslavement. The master’s fear of what would happen if slaves had access to learning and education sends an important message here.