In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. While this decision gave many children the legal right to equal education, it also revealed a deeper truth: in the United States, education has always been contested, from early America, where only white rich boys were taught basic literacy while women and enslaved people were denied schooling, to the present day where resources for schools remain deeply unequal.

Yet the stakes of education go beyond who is allowed in a classroom. Education itself– what is taught, who learns it, and how it is used–shapes individual lives and entire societies. Classic texts such as The Narrative and other writings by Frederick Douglass as well as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley reveal how knowledge can liberate, empower, and transform but also how it can be twisted into a tool of oppression and destruction. Education is the foundation for building skills and values central to democracy because it gives people the tools to question and resist injustice. Its impact, however, relies on how and why it is used, because without moral reflection knowledge can be used to reinforce oppression and harm others.

Since the start of this country, the slave-owning class feared providing slaves with the opportunity of education because they “would at once become unmanageable” (Douglass, Narrative 37) affecting American power structures. Most women and the poor weren’t allowed to be educated as well. Education can uplift individuals by opening the mind to possibilities and giving people the tools to improve their lives and the lives of others. Hence, it has created the fear for those in higher positions of power to provide that education for the underprivileged as it would create a change that would be uncontrollable to them, as one of Frederick Douglass masters states: “If you teach that n* (speaking to himself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master” (Douglass, Narrative 37). Douglass is an example of how knowledge threatened his abused social position because after learning to read and write, he gained the ability to think critically, question his purpose, and resist oppression. Soon, he urged others to seize the present moment: “They remind us that the present only is ours, and that what our hands now find to do, we should do quickly, and with all our might” (Douglass, “The Significance of Emancipation in the West Indies” 272). Once there is awareness and knowledge of one’s ability and rights, that knowledge can be used not only for personal growth but also to uplift others and drive social change. In recent years, we have seen this as communities have organized protests, campaigns, and boycotts to demand equality and justice, efforts that have led to major shifts in public policy and social recognition. In these movements, education has become a collective act of empowerment.

Consequently, the act of learning can disrupt existing social hierarchies by challenging ideas such as that some are destined to rule while others are to serve. Douglass’ education and knowledge along with many others led the abolitionist movement, which directly challenged the system that upheld slavery, as he stated, “Liberty is safer in the hands of freemen than in those of slaveholders” (Douglass, “The Inaugural Address” 459). The challenge he set was not just on the social hierarchies but on the system that was set that controlled slaveholders into following the dehumanization of slaves.

While Douglass shows how literacy and education can dismantle systems of oppression, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein illustrates the opposite: how knowledge, when pursued without moral responsibility, can create new hierarchies and dangers. Dr. Frankenstein’s deep scientific learning elevated him into a new social category, a creator with godlike powers, but without the moral foundation to handle it. When his monster demanded that Frankenstein make him a female monster, in the process of making her Frankenstein began to think to himself “one of the first results of those sympathies for which the daemon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth…” leading to the fear of a new human race that could destroy the current social hierarchy (Shelley 160). The monster’s own education, however, mirrors Douglass’ in some ways. Through reading and listening he becomes conscious of injustice, but unlike Douglass, this knowledge only deepens his misery. His learning brings recognition of inequality without offering any room to overcome it. Ultimately, the power of knowledge it holds and carries can reshape social hierarchies, either to liberate and expand equality, or to reinforce oppression and create new forms of danger.

Knowledge may not always liberate because it can also be weaponized. In Frankenstein, Victor’s pursuit of scientific knowledge led to the deaths of those he loved. Too much knowledge without moral grounding can lead to arrogance, harm, or unchecked power. Additionally, after the abolition of slavery, Douglass observed, “Slavery is indeed gone, but its shadow still lingers over the country and poisons more or less the moral atmosphere of all sections of the republic” (Douglass, “The Color Line” 508). That shadow took the form of racial myths, discriminatory laws, but also in the unequal access to education that left many free slaves without it. Instead of expanding education as a path to unity, some whites resisted, twisting their own knowledge into arguments that “blamed the war on blacks and said the two races could never live together in harmony” (Douglass, “The Inaugural Address” 479). Hence, for years, schools were segregated from colored people to white only schools, with many schools for colored students having minimal resources and a harsh learning environment. Douglass and Shelley both lived at the time where slaves and women were on the bottom of the social hierarchy and witnessed the harm that came when fighting for their rights, both understanding that knowledge without moral responsibility can harm not only individuals but entire generations.

Today, that same understanding applies. With the creation and advances in artificial intelligence, we are witnessing a more modern version of Frankenstein’s monster that carries unpredictable consequences. As Frankenstein asks himself, “Had I a right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations?” (Shelley 161). That same question must be asked today as AI reshapes the very foundation of education. Students now turn to AI for answers, preventing them from expanding on their critical thinking skills with generated responses.

If this tool is used without reflection, it risks hollowing out the process of learning itself. Therefore, knowledge becomes limited as it lacks the skill to learn and be responsible. Both Douglass and Shelley emphasized that knowledge can only be liberating when it is paired with a sense of responsibility, equality, and moral grounding. In short, AI is not something that we should be against, but to teach how to question its outputs and ensure that this source expands an opportunity of knowledge for all.

However, some might argue that ignorance can be protective as it shields them from horrors or further responsibilities they can’t handle. In Frankenstein, Victor initially did not carry the burden of the creation of his monster and was content until he knew the consequences of it; he chose to ignore it and remain living his life. In moments of crisis, some shield themselves from overwhelming truths to avoid anxiety or responsibility. If people do not know about injustice, they might live simpler, less burdened lives, a bliss. At times, Douglass thought the same as he expressed, “learning to read has been a curse…In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity” (Douglass, Narrative 42).  However, as history has taught us along with Douglass’ life, ignorance is never a stable refuge as it leaves injustice to be unchallenged. Problems hidden do not disappear, but they grow. Because while slavery was abolished, people’s ignorance of the scars it left on slaves, the problem did not fully get solved but instead continued through the act of Jim Crow Laws, segregation, and violence. As Douglass taught, facing truth may be hard, but it is the only path towards change that benefits all.

So the question still remains, what is our moral responsibility with knowledge today? How and why should we use it? I believe that after reflecting on the power that knowledge has given us, and the way Douglass and Shelley wrote about it, it is significant to pair our learning with reflection and a commitment to the common good not for an individual, or group, but for all. With the advancement of technology, information has become more accessible, but access alone is not enough. Education is not only about having the facts but knowing what to do with them. Right now, that concern is painfully real in Florida, where new Black history standards mandate teachers to teach students how slaves developed skills and personally benefitted from slavery itself, dismissing all the pain and discrimination they received. If education is the foundation of democracy, then we must ensure it is not stripped of its principles of justice, equality, responsibility, empathy, and truthfulness because whether we are talking about climate change, social rights, etc. or whether we are talking about national, regional, or local. The question one must ask is whether we will use our knowledge to liberate or to control?

Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. The Portable Frederick Douglass. Edited by John Stauffer and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Penguin Books, 2016.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Penguin Classics, 2003.