Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.
Frederick Douglass: “Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood…”
Editor's note · Context
In his autobiography, Douglass describes the profound realization that education was the key to escaping slavery, a truth he grasped from his master's unwitting lesson.
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Land is not worth much where there are no people to occupy it, and a mule is not worth much where there is no one to drive him.
For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.
I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.
We (the people of the North) are a charitable people, and in the excess of this feeling we were disposed to put the very best construction upon the strange behavior of our southern brethren.