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Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Summary

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Frederick Douglass – Learning to Read and Write
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1817, in 1838 he was roughly twenty-one years old he escaped to and went north, where he settled in Massachusetts and eventually joined the abolition movement to end slavery. He knew as a young child that he wanted to learn how to read and write and did not understand why his masters would not allow him or his fellow slaves to become educated. I agree with the summary by Frederick Douglass that whether you are a slave or not, no one can stop a person who wants the knowledge and an opportunity to learn. Douglass believed that according to the United States Constitution that black Americans had the same rights to participate in the economy, and social …show more content…

As a young child, Frederick Douglass goes to live with a family and soon figures out that he will need to consider his options of how he will learn to read and write. The Mistress of the house was a very caring woman in the beginning, and was willing to teach Frederick to read, but that soon changed. When the Mistress’ behavior toward Frederick becomes more hostile toward his dreams of learning to read he comes up with a plan so he can hide the fact that he continued his learning. He figured out that he could trade the extra bread from the house to the under privileged white boys in his neighborhood in exchange for their help in learning how to read. He began to hear talks of abolition and reading about it in newspapers, and his became more curious to know what abolition was. As Frederick achieved this skill he understand why the Master did …show more content…

At twelve years old Frederick did not trust the men (being white) but listened to what they had to say so he would know what to do when the time came. He mentions that, “White men have been known to encourage slaves to escape, and then, to get the reward, catch them and return them to their masters.” (Douglass) I could never imagine being twelves years of age and having to bear this type of burden from someone of a different race that was trying to help me out of a situation such as slavery. The men tell Frederick what an upstanding boy he is and they just wanted to help him understand that his situation could change drastically. At this point he knows that he will need to learn how to write as well so he could possibly write his way to

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As a boy, Frederick got moved to live with his master's cousin, Huge Auld. While Douglass was there, Auld's wife began teaching him how to read. Auld claimed that Frederick would be unfit for slavery if he knew how to read. Huge forbade his wife to continue teaching Douglass.

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Fredrick Douglass was a slave and he wasn’t going to let learning how to read and write opportunity slip

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Fredrick Douglass learned that enslavers hated enslaved people knowing to read and write as they feared what the enslaved people could do this that information. Douglass heard Mr. Auld ban Mrs. Auld from teaching Douglass how to read because, as he states, “Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now,” said he, “if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave” (Douglass Fredrick 38). Fredrick Douglass realized freedom was possible through learning, which inspired him to escape and learn more.

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When Frederick’s master was upset with his wife for giving Frederick reading lessons, Frederick’s master wanted to “impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction” and this “served to convince me of the results, which would flow from teaching me to read.” (Chapter 6) This proves that Frederick's master was cruel and dreadful and wanted to “impress” people on what evil consequences are giving to slaves if they learned to read. Douglass firmly believes that the black man could not be enslaved. Despite the economic necessity, if they were educated and literate.

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Douglass thinks this way of life is normal and does not know he is a slave and what being a slave involves. When he is seven years old, Frederick is sent away to work with different masters in Baltimore. This is where Douglass begins to learn how to read. His new master’s

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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.

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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.

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In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the narrator, Frederick Douglass, undergoes a series of transformations that changes his view on slavery: primarily, his Mistress’s decision to teach him the alphabet. Teaching a slave how to read and write was unlawful and dangerous during this time. Despite the risks, Douglass learns how to read and write in the hopes of it leading to freedom. Frederick Douglass’s courage reflects his ambition for knowledge and his desire for freedom and emphasizes the thematic truth that one is not free unless the chains holding them back are broken. Douglass’s pursuit of knowledge continued, despite strong opposition from his mistress and master, who thought, according to popular belief at the time,

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Frederick is living with Master Hugh and is self teaching himself because the mistress wants to follow orders from Master Hugh. Even in knowing this it didn’t stop Frederick from pushing towards something he knew he needed. “During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems” (Douglass 50). He was learning and was dedicated by doing multiple strategies to get it done.

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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

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The American person has no true ideals, or beliefs that make him or her up. Americans are free to believe in what they want, think what they want, preach what they want, and most importantly say what they want . Authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman show in their texts such as “Self-Reliance” , The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass , and “I Celebrate Myself” that there is no true definition of the American identity. The American identity can be seen in the many aspects of peoples lives, and a a quality that many Americans portray is the ability to have individual thoughts and emotions as well as the capability to not conform to society because they stand up for their own individual rights. A

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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

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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.

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1673 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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Knowledge is a very important essential of life because it help us understand and learn through our experience and education by discovering new things. Reading and writing help Frederick Douglass to form and articulate his ideas about slavery by discovering the true meaning behind the word “abolitionist,” which led him the to find freedom. Moving to Baltimore helped Douglass find opportunities at a young age. He realized how important reading was when his masters got upset when he was learning how to read, which gave him the need to learn in order to find out the true freedom behind life. Learning how to read was important to Douglass life because he started to figure out how to read newspapers and books when he was left alone.

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