Knowledge is power, ignorance is bliss?

“The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts, and to meet the arguments brought forward to sustain slavery; but while they relieved me of one difficulty, they brought on another even more painful than the one of which I was relieved. The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers” (33). “As I writhed under it, I 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” (33).

At the time, slaves were not allowed to read and thus they never learned. When I read about how slaves were prevented from learning, my attention was often on the slave masters’ cruelty and how much slaves must have wanted to learn. I didn’t consider beyond that. However, Douglass’s narrative brought to light a new aspect of the issue for me. Even after he learned to read, Douglass suffered a different kind of plight. Douglass reads the book “The Columbian Orator”. He learns more about his situation through his readings and begins to hate his masters more and more.

It would be hard to realize that you are living in injustice when that injustice is considered incredibly normal. Education is therefore the first step towards freedom. However, it does not automatically bring freedom. A great amount of effort has to be put into obtaining it. Even after someone learns that they are being treated wrongly, the helplessness they feel from their inability to make a change may overcome them. The torment that Douglass felt was so great that he even thought he should end his life. “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed” (33). As Douglass states, his mind may have been more at ease if he had not understood his situation. Then he would not have known that his masters had no right to treat him that way. He would not have detested his masters and may have accepted his situation.

However, if he had not gone through that hardship, Douglass would have remained in his horrible situation, not knowing what he was deprived of. Enlightenment may be a painful process, but it led him to a better life. The plight of slavery did not end by merely educating people. It needed time to settle in people’s minds and for them to take action.