Frederick Douglas, who was once a slave, wrote that slaves were intentionally kept ignorant, and most of them did not even know their own date of birth. They were generally kept away from any kind of education, and Douglas, when he was very young, had the luck of coming under the possession of a certain slave owner whose wife taught him to read, despite the fact that her husband did not approve of it, and Frederick Douglas as a child also tricked his fellow Caucasian children into sharing books with him . . . . As a result he not only became quite educated, but escaped to the North, became a great orator, and a great writer for the abolitionist (anti-slavery) cause.
Things have not changed a whole lot, in some ways . . . . Education has become so expensive, and, elitist, that only the wealthy can gain a good education without going broke in the process. (although a small number of people self-educate). It is the intention of the owners of the slaves to keep them as ignorant as possible, but what has changed is that they do not care who they enslave, be it immigrant, black, brown, yellow and white . . . . All the while using the media to convince them that they are "free", that their vote means something, when in fact, the candidates are all wealthy people hand-picked ahead of time, and already in the pocket of corporations. The slaveowners are the owners of corporations, the military industrial complex, and the banks. People like Frederick Douglas and John Brown would be completely horrified to learn that slavery has not been abolished, that it has become worse, has turned to prisons for profit, encouraging illegitimate arrests, imperialism, resurgent racism, and slaveowners so drunk with power that they go to war for profit, and murder hundreds of thousands of innocents for resources, land, and profit.
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“I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with Blood. I had as I now think vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done.” John Brown
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"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” Frederick Douglas
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“It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.” Frederick Douglas