Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Summary

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

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

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