Final answer:
Slaveholders like Mr. Auld kept slaves ignorant to maintain control and uphold slavery, as education could lead to resistance and challenge the institution. Douglass's literacy empowered him and others to combat racism and challenge oppressive structures.
Step-by-step explanation:
Why Education for Douglass was a Threat to Slavery:
It would be in the owner's best interest for Douglass to remain ignorant and uneducated because literacy and education were seen as tools of empowerment that could lead slaves to question and resist their condition. Slaveholders like Mr. Auld understood that education and slavery were fundamentally incompatible.
By keeping Douglass uneducated, he would be less likely to become unmanageable and would not challenge the institution of slavery. Literacy could enable slaves to become discontented with their status and potentially seek freedom or resist oppression, which could disrupt the economic and social systems that benefited slave owners. Thus, maintaining ignorance was a form of control to keep the institution of slavery intact.
Frederick Douglass, through his pursuit of literacy, demonstrated that education was not only a personal achievement but a collective upliftment. His ability to read and write allowed him to challenge the racist assumptions of his time, including the notion that African Americans were inherently inferior and incapable of intellectual pursuits. Literacy became a means to combat racism and to advocate for the rights of all enslaved people.