Frederick Douglass Learning To Read

The narrative by Frederick Douglass titled, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, indicates how whites controlled their slaves, by preventing them how to read and write. I believe that this was the main theme that Douglass wanted to let readers know; the cruelty the whites had against all the slaves. The slave owners prevented the young slaves to learn how to read and write because they did not want any slave writing about their slave life. They controlled slaves by trying to keep them away from gaining knowledge like knowing their birthday, where they came from, or who their parents were. While reading stories like Frederick Douglass’ narrative I start picturing the lives of slaves

The Truth of Enlightenment In Learning to Read by Frederick Douglass, he states that, “Learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing” (230). The connotation of the word curse gives people the feeling that reading can torment them and never leave them alone. For such a strong word to be utilized, it seems as if knowledge can physically and emotionally bring pain to people that did not expect its effects. Learning how to read is a form of enlightenment that pushes people toward a valuable education and consideration of the world around them.

Stumbling Isn’t Falling Our lives and how we grew up has a lot to do with our identity. Where you came from, and your experiences have molded you into who you are today. Today you see many writers use their personal experiences to show portray the concept to the audience. In this essay we will explore personal experiences of both Malcom X in “A Homemade Education” and, “Learning to read and write” by Fredrick Douglas.

Besides the similarities in understanding the importance of freedom, Frederick Douglass and Nat Turner has a lot of differences in using education to escape from slavery and gain freedom. In fact, Frederick Douglass used education as a mental resistance. To him, freedom means freedom in his mind. Resisting the ignorance of his master Hugh Auld is a great illustrated for this point. Unlike other slaves in the Hugh’s plantation, Douglass enjoyed a limit freedom in the Hugh’s house.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

African-American slaves were forbidden to obtain the knowledge of being able to read or write, stemming from the fear of white masters that educated slaves will overpower them. Douglass managed to learn to read by bribing poor and hungry white boys into teaching him in exchange for bits of bread. Douglass illustrates his thirst for literacy through “[The] bread [he] used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give [him] that more valuable bread of knowledge” (pg 23). This reveals how much Douglass valued education and took advantage of all the knowledge he had access to. Today’s youth, especially the ones belonging to a minority

Douglass start tring different way to learned to write. He planed to learn how to read from poor little white boys as much as possible. Douglass thought even these white kids are poor, but they are free. He would also bring some bread for them, he didn’t only learn, but also became friends with them. Douglass uses brickwalls, borad fences as his copy book,

Human slavery requires ignorance, just as an individual’s freedom, from oppression, requires knowledge attained by education. To maintain order and control over slaves, slavery demands ignorant slaves; thus, keeping slaves ignorant prevents slaves from recognizing the empowering value of education and education’s ability to liberate slaves from the effects of ignorance. Frederick Douglass’s pursuit of education helped him discover the dark, hidden truths of slavery in his article, “How I Learned to Read and Write.” Thus, the pursuit of education inspires a desire for freedom. The desire to learn generates determination and motivation.

“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.

In many countries living in extremely poor conditions, not only is basic health an issue but also the lack of education. Although it is a necessity, “more than 72 million children of primary education age are not in school and 759 million adults are illiterate” (Rights to Education 1). The deprivation of education should be taken serious if a change is wanted. People need to become aware of how important education is and the benefit that it has.

An education often opens new doors for people, but how does a lack of an education affect other people? What causes such a stark difference between people with knowledge and people no knowledge at all? In the Narrative of Frederick Douglass an American Slave we can see that Douglass is more intelligent than the other slaves on the plantation he is living on due to his hidden ability to read. With his level of education, he is able to see the brutal mistreatment of slaves and is unable to look at things the same way when he was an uneducated slave. The slaves on the plantation do not know how to read and therefore do not view being a slave the way Douglass views it.