Fredrick Douglass: Valuable Spread Of Knowledge

Fredrick Douglass taught himself in many different ways to read and write, while also unintentionally learning other things. Fredrick would first began to learn to read. While running errands Fredrick became friends with boys in the neaborhood. Some of these friends became Fredrick’s teachers. In exchange for reading lessons, Fredrick would give the boys bread. Fredrick explains this exchange in detail, stating “This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return would give me the more valuable bread of knowledge” (Douglass, 2004, 101). In addition to these lessons Fredrick would also read books and newspapers which not only made him a better reader but also expanded his knowledge in a not so good way. The more he read, the more he learned about slavery. He knew that being a slave was his reality and there was nothing he could do to escape it, he began to feel like he would be a “Slave for life!” (Douglass, 2004, 102). This in a sense made him wish he didn’t learn to read,

The process by which Malcom learned to read differ from the typical way of learning to read. Typically people learn to read by first being taught by a teacher basic words, they then practice these words until they full understand them. Once they understand the meaning of basic words they read basic books. Advancing to the more difficult books once they completed the level prior. Malcom X however didn’t use the typical reading technique. He taught himself to read by first writing the pages of the dictionary and rereading what he wrote, memorizing these word by reading “back, to myself everything I’d written on the table over and over, aloud” (X, 2004, 246). Then once he completed the dictionary he went on to read books. Reading more advanced books as time went on. Although a different way of reading this way was proven to be very successful for Malcom, he describes the first time he read a book after completing the dictionary as a “new world that opened” (X, 2004,