Frederick Douglass was an African American slave who lived and worked on a plantation in Baltimore. He was separated from his mother at a very early age, so he never really knew her, and he never met his father. Since Douglass was a slave he was not given the opportunity to learn how to read and write. This did not stop him from becoming one of the most influential African American man in United States history. He was so determined to learn how to read and write he taught himself how to read and write after just a few lessons with the plantation owners wife.
Fredrick Douglass learning to read and write, tells the story on how Douglass learned to read and write with little to no help. Douglass had a mistress that help him start the journey. But soon the mistress was told to ceased to instruct Douglass. Douglass watched her become a very heavy-hearted woman. When Douglass’s mistress first saw her, she didn’t see him as personal property.
Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass The purpose of the essay is to explain why Douglas believed knowledge is an avenue to freedom. By reading the essay the reader will learn throughout Douglas’s experience as a slave, he finds that masters consistently seek to deprive their slaves of knowledge. This way slaves feel powerless . However, Douglas as a slave knows that white man can keep the black race as slaves only if the slaves were kept illiterate.
Lastly, the slaves were not supposed to be able to read or write, they were denied an education. However, in the city the slaves were able to trick white boys into teaching them or mistresses would secretly educate them. Douglass used this strategy to learn how to read and write while living in the city, “I lived in Master Hugh’s family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write” (Douglass 79). It took Douglass a while to learn basic human necessities, such as reading and writing.
In “Learning to Read,” by Frederick Douglass, he lets us know how he learned to write and read. He had to overcome trouble in order to learn. He would read and write while no one would be watching him. Douglass was not allowed to read or write anything while being in the house. His mistress would get mad if she caught him doing so.
In “Learning to Read and Write” by Fredrick Douglass, Douglass went through many obstacles to learn to read and write. He was living with the Hugh family for quite some time about seven years. Douglass’s first learned the alphabet from his mistress. Douglass goes on about how his mistress is so kind and nice to him even though she eventually converted to her husband practices and dehumanized him. According to Douglass, he says, “She at first lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in mental darkness.
Frederick Douglass, a 19th-century African-American activist for the abolition of slavery, was a slave for first two decades of his life. Consequently, his oppressed position was the main root cause of all obstacles he faced during his early years, as discussed by him in essay “How I Learned to Read and Write”. The first obstacle he witnessed was his inability to read because of his mistress’ attitude who ceased to instruct him and grew to believe that, “Education and slavery were incompatible with each other”. It was an obstacle because young Frederick did not have a teacher who would create a learning program for him, and thus his learning to read became more difficult, and it was rather chaotic and unstructured. However, Douglass overcame
In “Learning to Read and Write,” the writer, an abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, wanted to learn ‘how to write and read, bud there was struggles throughout his process, and eventually accomplished his goal by reaching out for help. Throughout the authors writing he taught me that it was okay to struggle and fail even in the toughest moments in life, but it shouldn’t discourage you from achieving in life. Douglas has educated me that taking time and effort is one of the main keys that helps reach out a goal and feel like you have done a better impact in your own life. Also, helped me understand that reaching out for help could have a better impact than doing things independently.
Frederick Douglass in his narrative “Why I learned to Read and Write” demonstrates how he surpassed many obstacles along the way towards getting an education. These obstacles not only shaped Frederick’s outlook on life but also influenced him in his learning to read and write. Frederick’s main challenge was that of not being an owner of his person but rather a slave and a property to someone else. Frederick Douglass lived in the time when slavery was still taking place and slaveholders viewed slavery and education as incompatible. The slave system didn’t allow mental or physical freedom for slaves; slaveholders were to keep the apt appearance and slaves were to remain ignorant.
The acquisition of literacy was so important to Frederick douglass because it was something he couldn’t have. Douglass first realized he craved education when his mistress stopped teaching him. Douglass thought of reading as a curse, “It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out” (24). He could see the potential an education gave a person, but because he was a slave, there lies a large obstacle that allowed him to maximize his potential. Douglass asked the white boys who were being handed an education to carry their books so he could read and learn from them.
Douglass in “Learning to Read and Write” identified that there is no end to learning; there was always more to find out about or hear a different opinion on. Because of learning, he heard the word abolition for the first time. Just the thought of becoming free was enough for Douglass to continue striving to acquire information. The ability to read allowed him to learn more about current events than his fellow slaves which in turn gave him ideas about freedom. Education ultimately brought him to freedom which dramatically increased his quality of
According to Mistress Hugh, “education and slavery were incompatible with each other” (Douglass, 33). Although Mistress Hugh had stopped teaching Douglass how to read, the seed of knowledge had already been planted. In the years that followed, his hunger for knowledge did not dissipate. Douglass devised various methods to learn to read and write in very clever ways.
Learning to read Learning to read by Frederick Douglass encapsulates the story of a slave who was taught alphabets by her mistress who used to own him and was a relatively kind women then other slave owners and she used to be kind and gentle but the heart that slave owners possess eventually turns to stone and so did hers, meanwhile he started reading book s on his own, the courage and will to learn lead him to eventually learn how to write on his own, “The willingness of a salve in order to learn how to read and write is a tale worth telling”. (Douglass) The various issues that the African Americans had to face and that they beard for centuries also included not letting them how to read and right due to the fact that if someone learns about
“Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass is a personal narrative which describes a specific time in his childhood when he was learning to read and write. Born as a slave in the pre-Civil War south, Douglass was not expected to be literate. However, through strong ambition, Douglass overcame restrictions and stereotypes placed on slaves and taught himself to read and write. Later in his life, Frederick Douglass wrote down this story in his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845. Today, students and adults can enjoy this narrative on how he overcame the struggles of learning how to read and write.
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.
