Frederick Douglass believed that through literacy, a slave or black people, could receive their key to freedom. This was shown when Mrs.Auld taught Frederick how to read when he first got to their plantation. It was also shown when Frederick gave bread to white kids to learn how to read and spell. Another place it was shown is when Frederick listened to a conversation and went to the dictionary to find out the meaning of those words. To gain freedom Frederick had to risk his safety and life by learning to read. This quote was said when Frederick arrived at the Auld’s plantation.”To gain freedom Mrs.Auld taught him how to read and write, however, it was illegal for her to do it.” This quote is relevant because it shows slaves were kept simple minded. It’s also relevant because it shows how important it was for him to learn how to read. It was important to keep slaves shut off from learning so, they can keep the slaves loyal. The next quote will help explain this because it shows how difficult slaves had it to read. This quote was said when Mr.Auld found out that Mrs.Auld was tutoring Frederick. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his …show more content…
This quote was said when Frederick was listening to a private conversations. “Everyone little while,I could hear something about the abolitionist.” This quote shows that black people at this time didn’t know anything about literacy. It also showed that people relied on word of mouth to learn. This supports my quote because it shows the reaction to him listening. This quote was said after Frederick listened to the conversation between two white men. “From this time I understood the words abolition and abolitionists, and always drew near when that word was spoken.” This quote shows that knowing was worth something. It shows that listening was the key to Frederick’s literacy. These two quotes shows how people learned and how to get
Frederick Douglass was persistent in learning how to read. He did very small steps, one at a time and persevered and finally succeeded. Also, we can point out that because he was one among the few educated black persons from his time, that may explain why the stood out from the crowd of black folks. The struggle he went through as a kid and the lessons he learned gave him the strength to stand up against slavery and fight for justice. History proved us that doing so is risky, we think of Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. or Fred Hampton.
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
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Frederick Douglass valued education because it have taught him what it means to have freedom. Frederick Douglass did value education because he shared his knowledge with other slaves and didn't give up on what he believed and that helped him learn to read and write. “Henry and John were quite intelligent and in a very little while after i went there i succeed in creating in them strong desire to learn how to write. “I agree to do so and accordingly devoted my sunday to teaching these my loved fellow slave how to read.” Education is important because he cared about the education of others and he shared his knowledge with his friends, and i believed that if education was not important to him he would've given up on others and just cared about himself but no he shared with others because he thought it was an important thing for all.
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.
Frederick Douglass was a great writer, but he wasn’t always. He was an escaped slave who used that in his speeches as a topic to gain the attention of his audience. His audience was a seemingly sympathetic one and got to them through rhetorical questions. Douglass wanted to convey the message that there are many changes that need to be made.
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.
Slaves obtaining knowledge or an education were then viewed as unmanageable. One can see that through Frederick Douglass’s gain of education; Slavery began to look more than an imprisonment and his mind would not cease to think. With this depressing state of mind, Douglass would begin to plot for ways to obtain his education. Despite living in a country were teaching slaves was unpardonable, Frederick Douglass began to incorporate various ways for his education. He would hide in a separate room and would be suspected by his mistress that he could be reading a book.
He does not agree with Mrs. Auld teaching Douglass these new things, because he felt the education ruined slaves and ultimately would make them unhappy and unruly. Although Mr. Auld’s word were quite harsh, Douglass took it as words of enlightenment and vowed to win his freedom
Slaves were not supposed to be able to read or write and this made it hard. His mistress always got mad anytime she saw him reading. It was hard for him to accept the things he had read since they gave him more details about his race and what he was going through. Douglass learning how to read and write caused him to deal with his readings emotionally and mentally. Alexie thought that him learning how to read made him smart and he was very proud of doing so.
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.
Fredrick Douglass overhears this, and realizes that getting an education can actually lead him to freedom, and leaving slaves uneducated is a strategy to enslave blacks. He is then determined to learn anything he
Douglass for example emphasized the importance of education for slaves. Douglass is a first had observer of the strategy of slave owners to keep their slaves ignorant. By keeping slave uneducated they are unable to express the horrible things that happen to them to the world. Hugh Auld forces his wife to stop teaching Douglass to read (auld stopping teaching quote) , so Douglass teaches himself. For him learning to read was a major turning point in his quest for freedom and it enabled him to put out his book, which would inspire many to turn against slavery.
Although Frederick Douglass was not expected to be literate, he taught himself how because he believed that education should be for everyone, not just a few privileged children. Frederick Douglass was a slave for life in the southern United States before the Civil War. He had no regular teacher because, at that time, most slave owners did not believe that their slaves should be taught to read and write. White slave owners thought that if slaves knew how to read, they would go against their owners and fight against slavery.
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.
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.