In his essay “Learning to Read and Write” Frederick Douglass describes how he learned to read and write and the challenges he had to address in his condition of being a slave since childhood. His enslavers did not want him to get an education or to learn anything that could make him someone valuable because for them, slavery and education were not compatible. Despite all the obstacles that his or (he) enslavers put to him were not easy, he did not stop his aspiration to learn to read and write to become a person of character; he looked for other ways to learn to read and write since his enslavers did not allow that. He tries to enlighten that education and freedom are rights that every human being should have; education gives us the opportunity …show more content…
“The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers.” (Douglass 70). What he is trying to say is that he tried to make new friends because he wanted them to teach him how to read since his mistress stopped teaching him the alphabet because of her sudden change to a stonehearted woman. But by teaching him the alphabet, the first step was taken because he was interested about learning more and more. The plan that he adopted was successful; he learned how to read with the gently aid of the little white children in his neighborhood. In his interest of learning more, he now started to read every newspaper or any book he had opportunity to read, and by reading he started to discover what it really meant to be a slave; he started to shape and discover a new identity of which he was not so glad to discover. Since then, he started to be tormented about his condition of being a slave for life; he started to think about why he was not as free as the other children would be when they were adults. He loathed his masters because he considered that everybody should have the rights of freedom and education (rights that were not given to him). He is not only referring to his torment on …show more content…
The exact year and date of Douglass's birth are unknown, though later in life he chose to celebrate it on February 14. Douglass initially lived with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. At a young age, Douglass was selected to live in the home of the plantation owners, one of whom may have been his father. His mother, an intermittent presence in his life, died when he was around 10. Douglass tried to escape from slavery twice before he succeeded. He was assisted in his final attempt by Anna Murray, a free black woman in Baltimore with whom Douglass had fallen in love. On September 3, 1838, Douglass boarded a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Murray had provided him with some of her savings and a sailor's uniform. He carried identification papers obtained from a free black seaman. Douglass made his way to the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles in New York in less than 24 hours. In addition to abolition, Douglass became an outspoken supporter of women’s rights. In 1848, he was the only African American to attend the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton asked the assembly to pass a resolution stating the goal of women's suffrage. Many attendees opposed the idea. Douglass stood and spoke eloquently in favor, arguing that he could not accept the right to vote as a black man if women could not also claim that right. The
Frederick Douglass Graphic Organizer 1. In the passage, Frederick Douglass reveals about himself his life story. He writes about his childhood in which he learned to read by exchanging bread for lessons, his thoughts on slavery after reading The Columbian Orator where he had gotten hope on escaping slavery, and how he thought about slavery and freedom after reading one of Sheridan’s mighty speeches. His thoughts on slavery from a young age is revealed at the end of paragraph one where he said “You will be free as soon as you are twenty-one, but I am a slave for life!
In Frederick Douglass’s essay “Learning to Read and Write” he explains many of the deterrents he faced as a slave, including the challenges of reading and writing in this era. Owners prohibited their slaves to have an education. Why would they not want their slaves to have an education? Being educated meant you had the power of knowledge. Slaves lacked the basic concept of understanding and power, therefore they couldn’t challenge the practice of slavery in a political manner.
Though I pride myself to be a student of history, I sadly know little about the life of Fredrick Douglass. His essay, “Learning to Read”, beautifully captured the significance of knowing how to read, and the obstacles that Douglass had to navigate through in order to learn how to read. Visiting the African American History museum’s exhibit on Fredrick Douglass elected me further my knowledge about the life of Fredrick Douglass, and acted as a nice companion to his essay. What shocked me the most when visiting the museum was the role that Douglass placed on photography as a tool for social reform. Douglass believed that by taking photos, most common self-portraits, he would tear apart the societal norms about what white Americans thought African
In this book a conversation takes place between a master and his slave after the slave had run away for his third time. While talking to his master, the slave had very smart convincing things to say. At the end of the conversation, the master voluntarily emancipated his slave. Quite often this story would make the slave hearing it hopeful, but in Douglass’s case it did just the opposite. He felt more pain and more trapped than he has ever felt before.
In Frederick Douglass’ excerpt, “Learning to Read’, it shows us how as a slave he overcame the challenges that forbid him to not be able to learn how to read and write. At some point Frederick Douglass felt at times that “learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing” (Douglass 193). Douglass felt wretched about his learning ability since he was not allowed to because he was a slave. His mistress never let anyone but her teach him how to read. At the beginning of the story Douglass describes his mistress as “kind, warm, and tender hearted woman” but then her tender heart became stone.
Reading about Frederick Douglass 's struggle to learn to read and write reminded me of some difficulties I faced when I was also trying to learn. All throughout elementary school, I had to take a speech therapy class to help me learn to read. It was very difficult to learn how to read some words because of my speech impediment. However, I worked a little harder each day to sound words out right and before I knew it, I was able to read and write just as good as every other student. In a way, Douglass and I both had some difficulties we had to push through to be able to learn to read and write but if you work hard enough anything is possible.
He converted unknowingly little “White boys” that he would meet on the street into his teachers and over time, Douglass finally learned how to read. The young boys that helped teach Douglass how to read would soon grow up and be free to do as they wish, but he would be a slave for life! By learning to read, not only did Douglass gain the knowledge
He points out personal facts about how he feels when he says, “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 foe which I should have been killed”. The words that he uses explains the emotions that he was going through and to build an appeal to emotions. Throughout the time that he has been expanding his knowledge he runs across the word “abolitionist” which means it’s a movement to end slavery. He was always eager for someone to speak about it and he was ready to listen he says, “I did not dare ask anyone about its meaning, for I was satisfied that it was something they wanted me to know very little about”. He says this because he realized that the word is spoken very rarely and he knew if he spoke that word and someone heard him, he could get penalized.
However, literacy turns out to be not only bliss, but also painful. Indeed, while learning to read Frederick becomes more and more aware of the injustices of slavery, and this leads him to regret this knowledge “Learning how to read had become a curse rather than a blessing” ( Douglass ) . Douglass believes in the importance of education. He thinks that education is a key part to our life; it is the only way to get freedom. Literacy is very powerful because it can set anyone free to pursue dreams.
The legendary abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass was one of the most important social reformers of the nineteenth century. Being born into slavery on a Maryland Eastern Shore plantation to his mother, Harriet Bailey, and a white man, most likely Douglass’s first master was the starting point of his rise against the enslavement of African-Americans. Nearly 200 years after Douglass’s birth and 122 years after his death, The social activist’s name and accomplishments continue to inspire the progression of African-American youth in modern society. Through his ability to overcome obstacles, his strive for a better life through education, and his success despite humble beginnings, Frederick Douglass’s aspirations stretched his influence through
In “learning how to read and write,” Fredrick Douglass tells about how he achieved the ability to read and write. Thou, it seems like an easy task, Douglass accomplished his goals in a time where society condoned slavery. Despite all the barriers Douglass faced, he accomplished his journey, and learned to read and write; therefore engaging the audience to overcome any obstacles just as he did.
Slaves often do not understand their condition fully, since they do not know life beyond slavery. His unawareness of the liberating power of education bound him in a misleading bliss, causing him to believe that his state of being had permanency and to remain unaware of his injustice. However, once education had revealed to Douglass his ignorance, he says, “. . . 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.”
Because of this, he successfully creates a contrast between what the slave owners think of and treat the slaves and how they are. Douglass says that slave’s minds were “starved by their cruel masters”(Douglass, 48) and that “they had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass, 48) and through education, something that they were deprived of, Frederick Douglass is able to open their minds and allow them to flourish into the complex people that they are. By showing a willingness to learn to read and write, the slaves prove that they were much more than what was forced upon them by their masters.
Douglass states: “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery” (Douglass 51). Reading and writing opened Frederick Douglass’s eyes to the cause of the abolitionist. He became knowledgeable about a topic that white slave owners tried to keep hidden from their slaves. Literacy would eventually impact his life in more ways than what he could see while he was a young slave under Master Hugh’s
With all the knowledge he was gaining, he began to comprehend everything around him. The things he was learning fascinated him, but the “more [he] read, the more [he] was led to abhor and detest [his] enslavers”(Douglass 35); however, that should not be viewed as a negative affect but a positive one. No one should want to be deceived for their entire life. This hatred that he built up motivated him to continue to further educate himself. As a result, he later motivated other slaves to earn an education by having “[availed] themselves to [an] opportunity to learn to read” (Douglass 69) by Douglass teaching them every Sunday.