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Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Essay

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Frederick Douglas had a very difficult learning experience while growing up. Understanding how to read and write was not easy for Douglas, however he was very determined to learn. For him slavery was something very hard to fight many years ago. African Americans were limited with rights and education. He did many things that someone during slavery would not do to be able to learn how to read and write. He would give the little white boys pieces of bread to gain knowledge that he needed from them to advance his understandings of how to read and write. He felt to be able to learn how to do these things were a curse instead of it being a blessing. He absorbed as much information as he could from any white boy that he would meet on the street. He would give them such stories saying he knew how to write certain words or letters so they would help him. Knowing he did not know how to write them as well as he was making it seem. But this was his way of trying to learn during these hard times of slavery. Though he had times where he just wanted to give up on learning how to read and write but Douglas knew this was not the answer. He also found help in the Webster’s Spelling Book. This book was filled with many words for him to learn. He would keep copying words over and over until he got it right. This took lots of practice …show more content…

I struggled through many hard times as a teenager. Growing up into a young adult was not easy for me. I fought through high school as well as at home. I worked very hard to try and achieve my high school diploma. I was taken away from my parents and put into foster care at age fifteen. I attended four different high schools during my freshmen year. Every school I went to was either behind from the previous school or ahead of what I had previously

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Finally, during this time in every week, Douglass would take advantage of this opportunity through practicing and learning to write. At a different point in his writing, Douglass states, “After that I met with any boy who I knew could write, I would tell him I could write as well as he. The next word would be, “I don’t believe you. Let me see you try it.” I would then make the letters which had been so fortunate as to learn, and ask him to beat that.

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Slaves were not supposed to be able to read or write and this made it hard. His mistress always got mad anytime she saw him reading. It was hard for him to accept the things he had read since they gave him more details about his race and what he was going through. Douglass learning how to read and write caused him to deal with his readings emotionally and mentally. Alexie thought that him learning how to read made him smart and he was very proud of doing so.

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Douglass’s passion to gain knowledge motivated him to teach himself how to read and write; however, Wright’s knowledge developed from being able to go to school and so this is indicative of Douglass experiencing education far worse than Wright. According to Douglass, it was prohibited for slaves to be educated. Since slaves did not have access to an education, Douglass had to find ways to self-teach himself. By virtue of Douglass’s learning, he asserts that: “All the little white boys whom I met in the street… I converted [them] into teachers… [and] I finally succeeded in learning how to read” (Douglass 146).

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However, Douglass has already learned the alphabet and is determined to learn how to read. He gives bread to poor local boys in exchange for reading lessons. Douglass writes that he is now tempted to thank these boys by name, but he knows that they would suffer for it, as teaching blacks still is not socially acceptable during this time. Douglass recalls the boys sympathetically agreeing that he no more deserved to be a slave than they did themselves.

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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.

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When Douglass had to run an errand he always to his book with him along with a piece of bread. Due to the white kids that were helping him being poor and hungry he exchanged bread for lesson on how to read and write. Learning allowed him to used these new skills towards helping his people after discovering the word

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The “Narrative of Frederick Douglass” is an autobiography written by Frederick Douglass. In this excerpt, he recounts how he struggled to learn to read and write while he was a slave. While living with Master Hugh, the mistress started to teach Douglass how to read until she took on the views of her husband: it was dangerous for slaves to have access to knowledge. Douglass found teachers among the white children he would meet in the neighborhood. When he was sent on errands, Douglass would trade bread in return for lessons.

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Through his observations of this work, Douglass managed to learn to write four letters. Another tactic Frederick Douglass used in learning to write was fooling young boys. Douglass would brag to a boy that he could write so much better than he could. This challenge leads to Douglass receiving “many lessons in writing, which…I should never have gotten in any other way” (Douglass 59). Thus, this scheme tremendously added to his ability to write.

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He gives bread to poor local boys in exchange for reading lessons. These young boys are sympathetic to Douglass’s enslavement, and Douglass refrains from thanking them by name so as to save them the embarrassment of having aided a slave. Despite the challenges he faced, Douglas managed to get a book, The Columbian Orator and used every chance he got to read this book about slavery. After being encouraged to run away to the north for freedom, Douglass began to sit at Durgin and Bailey's ship-yard and taught himself to write. By copying the letters on the crates, Douglass learned to write and impressed many of his peers with his new talent.

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In Frederick Douglass’ narrative, Learning to Read, he states that, “As I writhed under it, 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. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to had no ladder upon which to get

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Frederick Douglass once said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he tells his story on enslavement and the journey to freedom. Part of this journey includes Douglass’s escapades of learning to read and write as well as his fight and victory over his slaveholder Mr. Covey. Learning to read and write and his victory over Mr. Covey were significant in Douglass’s journey to freedom because they bestowed an original determination and clarity to escape upon him, and brought his fiery desire to escape back when it was once burnt out. Learning to read and write was a significant moment because it made Frederick Douglass clear on the realization that he needed to escape, and was determined to do so.

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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

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“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.

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In Frederick Douglass’s narrative essay titled “Learning to Read” he recalls his journey to literacy. Throughout the essay Douglass reveals how he learned to read and write, despite the fact that education was strictly prohibited to slaves. Initially, Douglass learned how to read through his mistress, but he later learned from the little white boys on the streets. As for learning to write, he often times observed ship carpenters and replicated the copy-books of his Master’s son. Frederick Douglass did not have the same opportunities students have today, yet despite his adversities, Douglass was able to become a literate slave, and ultimately free himself from slavery with the power of

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Douglass believe education was the strength for slaves to gain freedom. Douglass finally succeeded in learning how to write when he was left alone by his mistress and started to practice writing in his Master Thomas’s copy-book. Learning how to read and write help Douglass see slavery as intolerable cruel punishment, so he did not sleep until he became free. By doing so, Frederick Douglas began to write in support of

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