Frederick Douglass: Education And Freedom

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Education and Freedom Education and Freedom are inextricably linked. Education provides new knowledge and differing perspectives and empowers mind to think critically and formulation its own perspectives and ideas. Nelson Mandela said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way the respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Education and Freedom are related in many ways such as the more educated a person is the more librated they are in their thinking and having more intellectual freedom can lead to further physical freedom, so the more educated a person is, the more will and power they have to pursue their own freedom,…show more content…
Sherman Alexie writes about this in his article Superman & Me “I read anything that had words and paragraphs. I read with equal parts joy and desperation. I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life.” Alexie expresses how important reading was to him, while he wasn’t trying to escape physical bondage, escaping the stereotype that limited his potential was still incredibly imperative to him so much so that he felt his very life depended on it. Frederick Douglass expands on this writing, after reading a particular passage in The Columbian Orator, “The moral which I gained through the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder.” (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 45) While still in physical bondage the first steps to freedom for Frederick Douglass was libration of his thoughts. Once he read and understood the world opened up to him, freedom became something essential that one could take away from him. He was no longer confined by his perception or situation; having freed himself mentally he could now pursue more physical freedom. Inversely the less educated a person is the less librated they are in their thinking and the lesser their capacity for intellectual freedom. The main power a slaveholder had over his slaves was the ability to keep his slaves
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