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Fredrick Douglass: Positives And Negatives Of His Education

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Fredrick Douglass: Positives and Negatives of His Education During the times of slavery, teaching an African American how to read or write was extremely disapproved, and even against the law. Although it was so, many slaves found ways to educate themselves and learn the skills of reading and writing. In the book, The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, education is a tremendous underlying theme. Douglass notes many references as to how he himself learned to read and write. He explains how learning brought many positive and negative implications for him. Douglass first learned how to read and write near the middle of his time as an enslaved man. One of his past mistresses, Mrs. Auld, taught him the basics of spelling and the ABCs. From that moment, Fredrick craved to learn, and sought out to read and write. After overhearing an argument between Mrs. Auld and her husband, scolding her for …show more content…

Some were so bad that it would leave his back raw and bloody for days. Even though he went through countless beatings he stayed courageous and stayed focused on his goal of escaping to freedom. This appeals to pathos because even though he knows the consequences of educating himself and eventually escaping, he ignores them and continues to push for freedom courageously. Shortly after escaping, Douglass went to many different meetings and spoke on the behalf of the abolition of slavery. He was eventually recognized as an avid supporter and speaker of abolition. This appeals to ethos because Douglass has lived through slavery and can speak firsthand about what really happens. He has proven a credible source because he can explain, in immense detail, the events that took place. He provides accurate dates from his life as a slave. This appeals to logos because Douglass explains his situations with as much detail as possible, and uses accurate accounts of dates, settings, facts, and

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In “learning how to read and write,” Fredrick Douglass tells about how he achieved the ability to read and write. Thou, it seems like an easy task, Douglass accomplished his goals in a time where society condoned slavery. Despite all the barriers Douglass faced, he accomplished his journey, and learned to read and write; therefore engaging the audience to overcome any obstacles just as he did.

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Many of us take education for granted and don’t learn to our fullest potential, but Fredrick Douglass soaked in every piece of information up because he knew it was his way out. “Learning to Read and Write” is a famous article based on what Fredrick Douglass went through to earn a valuable education while being enslaved. Author Fredrick Douglass, wrote “Learning to Read and Write”, published in 1845. Throughout the article, he takes us through different events he goes through while being enslaved. Douglass begins building his credibility with personal facts and successfully demonstrating logic and pathos appeal.

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In the essays, “Reading to Write” by Stephen King, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, “Learning to Read” Malcolm X, and “Learning to Write” by Frederick Douglas have three things in common. In each essay Reading has contributed towards the authors life leading to benefit from learning to read, allowing them to leave a legacy behind. In each essay the authors has thought their self how unlike Frederick Douglass. For Stephen King, reading has done a lot for him. King stated, “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (221).

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Learning To Read and Write is an autobiography Written by Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born into slavery, and moved into his final master’s home when he was a young boy. From the start Douglass was giving schooling from his mistress, however this came to an abrupt ending when Douglass’ master walked into a lesson and became furious. In spite of his lessons coming to an end, Frederick Douglass was determined to learn to read and write so he could escape his life of slavery and enter a new found life of freedom. With his determination Douglass was ready to do anything to learn.

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In addition to establishing himself as a credible narrator and using anecdotes with repetitive diction and imagery, Douglass also highlights how religion was enforced in slavery. Every slave owner that Douglass belonged to was hypocritical and deceival towards their faith. This is frequently used through all his anecdotes to persuade the reader that slavery is full of non-sense and that the “devoted, peaceful, just, and kind owners” were full of lies. “He seemed to think himself equal to deceiving the Almighty. He would make a short prayer in the morning, and a long prayer at night; and, strange as it may seem, few men would at times appear more devotional than he…

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In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.

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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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In his talk, Frederick Douglass describes the steps he took to teach himself to read and write. His master and mistress refused him a formal education, so he had to rely on the kindness of strangers and other slaves to educate him. When he saw white children learning, he secretly borrowed books and newspapers to teach himself. He practiced memorizing words and writing them on dirt and later on with charcoal on a wall. Douglas attaches great importance to his literacy and considers it the key to his freedom.

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Douglass encountered multiple harsh realities of being enslaved. For example, the ex-slave was practically starved to death by his masters on multiple occasions. In fact, “[He was] allowed less than a half of a bushel of corn-meal per week, and very little else... It was not enough for [him] to subsist upon... A great many times [he had] been nearly perishing with hunger” (pg 31).

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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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With all the knowledge he was gaining, he began to comprehend everything around him. The things he was learning fascinated him, but the “more [he] read, the more [he] was led to abhor and detest [his] enslavers”(Douglass 35); however, that should not be viewed as a negative affect but a positive one. No one should want to be deceived for their entire life. This hatred that he built up motivated him to continue to further educate himself. As a result, he later motivated other slaves to earn an education by having “[availed] themselves to [an] opportunity to learn to read” (Douglass 69) by Douglass teaching them every Sunday.

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Throughout the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, we can see Douglass state in the Narrative that learning how to read changed his

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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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In the Frederick Douglass 's "Learning to Read and Write," Douglass explains his experiences in slavery and how he overcame those obstacles. He wanted to battle racism against black people, so he decided to study. He thought his knowledge would make him escape from that horrible place. He “consoled [himself] with the hope that [he] should one day find a good chance [to escape]. Meanwhile, [he] would learn to write" (Douglass).

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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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