Frederick Douglass Dreams

Douglass’s narrative is a courageous work, as it confronts the slavery institution, and the misuse of Christianity by the slave owners

Literacy plays an important part in helping Douglass achieve his freedom. Learning to read and write enlightened his mind to the injustice of slavery; it kindled in his heart longings for liberty. Douglass’s skills proved instrumental in his attempts of escape and afterwards in his mission as a spokesman against slavery.

Throughout the history of slavery in the United States, it was common practice not only for slaveholders to neglect to teach their slaves to read or write, but also for them to outright forbid literacy among slaves. This was done in order to limit the slaves knowledge and modes of communication, making it more difficult for them to learn about the abolitionist movement or for for them to share their situation with the world outside of slavery. Like many other slaves, Frederick Douglass was not allowed to learn to read or write. In his autobiography; “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass retells how he managed to become literate in a time where most African Americans were forbidden from literacy, and how this knowledge allowed him to eventually escape slavery.

While on one end slave-owners did their best to deprive slaves of education, on the other side, Douglass constantly stresses the importance of slaves acquiring knowledge and education in any way possible. While in Baltimore, Douglass comes to the realization of just how important education is. His master, Mr. Auld, becomes angry with his wife when he discovers she is trying to teach Douglass how to write. This is a life changing moment for Douglass and from then on, he understood that education was linked with freedom. He would go to extremes to educated himself. Douglass would walk the streets of Baltimore with a book, and a piece of bread. He describes how he would meet up with young white boys and trade his loaf of bread for tips on how to read (Douglass

1. Douglass taught himself how to read and write. At first, Douglass’s mistress taught him how to read the alphabet before her husband prohibited her from doing this. After that he started to teach himself how to read by reading books and newspapers, and how to write by copying his little Master Thomas’s written in the spaces left in the copy-book when his mistress goes to the class meeting every monday afternoon. However his most successfully way of teaching himself how to read was to make friends with the white boys whom he met in the street. He bribes them with food to get them to teach him. He also learned how to read and understand the meaning of the name on the timber.

One of the most important examples of perseverance in Douglass’s Narrative is his constant thirst for knowledge. The great impact learning had upon Douglass is inarguable. When his master Anthony takes him to Baltimore, he is introduced to Mrs. Auld who begins teaching him letters and small words (Douglass 250). Once Mr. Auld finds out, he warns the woman of the dangers of this kindness and forbids her from continuing these lessons (Douglass 250). Douglass’s hearing of this stirs within him his most important revelation. He tells readers, “From that moment, I

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl are both nineteenth-century narratives about Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs’s experiences born into slavery and as escaped slaves. The concept of gender makes each narrative have distinct perspectives’ of their version of what they endure during slavery and how it shapes their freedom. Even though both narratives have many similarities of educating the complexity of being a vulnerable slave, Harriet Jacobs’ narrative provides more reason that slavery is far worse for women than it is for men.

     Although Douglass’ desire to develop the mind was strong, he didn’t always have it. It wasn’t until Mr. Auld had chastised Mrs. Auld for teaching him the alphabets that he really felt the aspiration to read. Douglass said, “That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully

Before I read this piece of art, I did not think that I would like it; I thought it was a tedious literary work like the ones a part of a colossal textbook at first glance. However, I changed my mind after reading it thoroughly. I am honestly amazed at how Douglass’ words link together to have such easy flow and clarity through each sentence. He is a better writer than some of the people who learned how to read and write at an even younger age than him. Last but not least, I love how he proves that education is important since reading and writing gave him the advantage to become a free man; this excerpt gives a lesson on why education is pivotal to gaining knowledge to have a sense of individuality.

Douglass was a slave, who had an attitude like no other slave and had the motivation to learn to read and write. Douglass states, “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers.” This shows how Douglass loved to read, and how he became of more knowledge as he read. Books saved Douglass from a very dull life, he read so much that he became smart enough to escape from slavery. Douglass ended up becoming a very fluent reader and writer, before he escaped and after he escaped. This is very much like Charles Blow, and how he saved himself from a terrible life by reading

Frederick Douglass was a young slave with an aspiring dream to learn and further his life of knowledge and education. There was only one thing stopping him: his lack of freedom. The ability to read and access to an education is a liberating experience that results in the formation of opinions, critical-thinking, confidence, and self-worth. Slave owners feared slaves gaining knowledge because knowledge is power and they might have a loss of power, which would result to the end of cheap labor. Slave owners made the slaves feel as if they had no self-worth or confidence. If the slaves got smarter they could potentially begin to learn how unjust and wrong slavery was and they would have enough reason to rebel against it. Douglass was learning how to read and write from his slave owner’s wife. Unfortunately, both of them were told how wrong it was for him to be learning because a slave was not to be educated and was deemed unteachable. There was also another fear that the slave owners had. They feared that slaves would have better communication skills which would lead to escape and ways to avoid slavery. Reading opens your mind to new ideas and new knowledge one has never had the opportunity of knowing.

Douglass had an obvious want for knowledge and understanding, which he clearly fought for through his autobiography. He was taught the alphabet and how to spell at a young age by his master’s wife. However, his teachings were put down when his owner told his wife that there’d be no fit for him if he learned how to read. Douglass soon started to realize that if he wanted his freedom he’d have to learn to read. Being told not to learn only made him want to learn more so that one day he will gain the respect, knowledge, and freedom he deserved. He even used bribes to have young boys teach him to write. His want for education was very strong, and that’s where he uses his desire to his advantage in the writing style of his self written life story. He tells his story as if we were alongside him the whole way learning how he put each little teaching he learned together like a puzzle to make one big magnificent masterpiece at the end when he finally gained his freedom. As Douglass continued to gain knowledge, he gained more character and found himself to not be just a slave but a human being, a valuable and important man who wanted to make a difference in the way he

Douglass values education and knowledge to the highest extent. He gained this knowledge from being taught by Mrs. Auld and by tricking the white kids into teaching him. The people around him are trying to keep literacy away from slaves like him, because it is their way out of slavery. Like when Mr. Auld prevents Mrs. Auld from teaching Douglass and explains why he does so,” If you teach that slave

Fredrick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write”, gives readers insight into the struggles of being a slave with intelligence, but more importantly into his experience. In his essay, Douglass shows how he fought to obtain knowledge; however, a reading of his story will reveal that what he learned changed him for the better. Michael Scott, a former EOF student read the story and believed that Douglass’s intelligence was a destructive and to a certain degree pointless. Contrary to Scott’s statement, Douglass’s knowledge wasn’t more of a curse than a blessing. Being a slave was everyone’s curse. Douglass went into depression because he hadn’t had the same experience as other slaves and finally felt what it was really like to be a slave when he was punished for his knowledge. However just because his knowledge is what got him into trouble doesn’t necessarily make him, being an intelligent slave; a curse nor does it mean that he had absolutely no alternatives to his condition. In fact, he above most other slaves had the upper hand when it came to creating his own alternative. Douglass’s intelligence helped him become autodidactic, manipulate situations to benefit him, and develop an ambition to become free.

To further his reading and writing abilities, he had to resort to a number of different methods. For instance, he would give bread to poor boys in his neighborhood in exchange for reading lessons. Taking his book with him when sent on errands, he would quickly finish his errands and would use the remaining time for lessons and reading the newspaper. Second, in order to achieve writing skills he observed how the carpenters in the shipyard wrote. For example, if a piece of wood were meant for the larboard side they would write thus--L. Furthermore, when he encountered any boy that could write he would trick them by stating he could write better than they could and using the letters that he learned in the shipyard he would tell them to beat that. He would carefully observe what they wrote and every chance he got; he practiced on the walls, pavement and wooden fences with chalk. In addition, his master's son, Thomas, brought home copybooks from school, Douglass would write over what Thomas wrote. Within a couple of years Douglass was able to read and write.