Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Summary

Frederick Douglas was born on February 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland and died February 20, 1895 in Washington D.C. His expertise during his life was as an abolitionist and womens rights supporter. He enjoyed fighting for his people and supporting his people. He didn’t like the fact that blacks weren’t allowed to read or write especially as slaves therefore explaining in his story “Learning
to
Read and
Write”. In his narrative he talks about how he grew up in slavery being treated as a brute. He explains how his mistress at first had encouraged his reading and writing but eventually the slavery influence took over her heart and made it rock hard. The first day he came to the Hugh house he was treated as a human and was considered not a slave. When the moment of change came through her he was not allowed to read, and whenever he had a newspaper she would rip it out of his hands. He would read anything he got his hands on. When his mistress had taught him the alphabet he was able to teach himself the rest of the way without any

He would go to the docks to help out the men and they would always ask him if he was a slave and if he was a slave for life. They would tell him he would be free at 21 but when he turned 21 he didn’t become free but still was a slave. Many times in his life he wanted to die and wished he hadn’t existed. The only thing that kept him alive was the thought of escaping or being freed. He carefully listened of stories of abolitionists and stories of escape. He kept the thought that he would learn to write and eventually figured out a way to learn. He would go work next to the lumber areas and copy down the letters from the lumber which was used for boats. He would hear others pronounce the words and he would copy them down therefore making it easier for