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Why Did Frederick Douglass Become Literate

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Frederick Douglass Essay By being persistent, creative and determined Frederick Douglass was able to achieve the impossible by overcoming the odds by the use of unconventional methods to become literate. Frederick Douglass faced a lot of adversities while living with the Hugh’s family. He tried his best to learn as much as he could from whoever he could or from whoever was willing to teach him. Without Frederick Douglass being so persistent his entire life he would have not been able to accomplish his mission to become literate. At the age of twelve, Douglass was being taught the alphabet by his Masters wife, Mrs. Hugh’s. Mr. Hugh’s being vexed by the lessons blatantly said it was inappropriate to teach him. After Douglass had his mind …show more content…

Douglass was so determined to become literate that he learned in so many unorthodox ways that it made him a better thinker, reader, and writer. As a child Douglass got his hands on The Columbian Orator, which instilled an influx of ideas in his mind. Although with the spark the Columbian Orator arisen, Douglass wasn’t able to do much with it because he was unable to create a coherent answer or response to the questions and ideas he had. With the arrival of these thoughts also brought along heartache. He was a prisoner to his own mind, when he learned to read he got a rude awakening by being aware of his situation as a slave. Douglass for some time underwent suffering do to the fact that he knew he was a slave and because he knew he could do nothing about it. After this he had wanted to run away to the North where he could find help from the people to free him. But coming to the realization that he was too young to run away he wanted to learn to write. So he spent time down by Durgin and Bailey’s shipyard, there he saw various carpenters writing the letters L, A, S, and F on pieces of wood that had to go to a specific side of a ship. He began to mimic the carpenters and started to write the four letters out. After a while he was able to write the four letters with ease and wanted to learn more. He then later challenged a boy who he knew could write, that he could write just as well as he. So after they had their little showdown, Douglass received many great lessons he would have not been able to receive anywhere else. In the excerpt Douglass says “I continued by copying the advanced spelling words in Webster’s Spelling Book until I could make them all without looking at the book.” He was so determined to be literate he would stop at nothing, he went out of his way to find other means of learning. Douglass would make the

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