Frederick Douglas's Writing, By Frederick Douglass

Education is very important to the blacks that were enslaved in the novel. The slaves valued education even more than the modern African Americans like Dana who had always thought they had very high standards on education. The slaves valued education so much because to them it was not only a tool to better themselves, but also a very powerful tool that could potentially lead them to freedom. With the ability

In the pre-Civil War plantations of the South, slaves were forbidden to read or write. In other words, they were forced to be ignorant and locked in mental darkness. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he writes in dept about his life as a slave in these plantations. After leaning the ABC's and learning to spell words consisting of three or four letters from Ms. Auld, Frederick Douglass illustrates how he secretly taught himself how to read and write using various strategies such as: Learning the letters on the timber at Durgin and Bailey's ship yard, getting lessons from the white boy's he met on the street, Webster's Spelling Book, and master

But all these reasons were unknown to him in the beginning, he only saw learning as a positive thing, he is exciting and when she stopped teaching him he started developing strategies to learn. The first one was to make friends between the little white boys in the street, he used bread he stole from his house in order to “bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge”. When he was twelve “the thought of being a slave for life began to bear heavily upon [his] heart”, now reading from book put him in touch with a lot of different topics and makes him aware of how is the world around him. Here we have a change in his way of seeing knowledge, he wants to kill himself because he doesn’t have the remedy to free himself and to stop slavery in the larger system. He thinks that “learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given [him] a view of [his] wretched condition, without the remedy. In this situation we assist at the second strategy to learn, he understood how to write from the initials of those parts of the ship for which they were intended and later copying from the books of his mistress’ son, in this way finally succeeded in learning how to write. The most important thing in the passage is that after regretting his own existence because of “the power of

Douglass was motivated to learn how to read by hearing his master condemn the education of slaves. Mr. Auld declared that an education would “spoil” him and “forever unfit him to be a slave” (2054). He believed that the ability to read makes a slave “unmanageable” and “discontented” (2054). Douglass discovered that the “white man’s power to enslave the black man” (2054) was in his literacy and education. As long as the

Throughout this excerpt from his autobiography, Frederick Douglass constantly refers to the importance of Education and Literacy. He continuously details not only that education represented power, but also that an educated and literate slave would be dangerous in the eyes of the slave-loving southerners. Education all throughout time has represented knowledge, and knowledge is seen as power, both of which could easily corrupt someone, hence why slave owners chose to keep slaves in the dark in regards to education. Douglass argued that education was seen as the key to success and free thoughts, however, both were luxuries unknown to a slave unless they took matters into their own hands.

Slave owners often would punish any slaves that tried to educate themselves. They didn't want their slaves to be educated in fear that they

Douglass learned his alphabet and some small words from Mrs. Auld. When Hugh Auld realized she was teaching him to read he ordered her to stop saying that it'll make him unfit to be a slave. Douglass learned how to read and write on his own.

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore about two Wes both with the same name, born in the Moore’s fate. This story is about two boys same city. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison for murder. The author’s purpose is to explain how different variables affect who they grow up to be.

When he finally was able to learn what it meant, it caused him emotional harm. The knowldege of it made him loath his slave owners even more. He saw them as theives who stole him and his people from their homes just to come do work for them, and not get paid. Knowing the full truth put more chains of sanguish on his heart and at times he just wished he could bite the dust and have his misery end. The things I have learned whether intentional emulition or unintentional emulicious are multifarious, but 2 of them spark my mind when it comes to this paper.

For example, he mentions that he wrote very little in his schooling until his last year of high school where a teacher helped him find an interest in doing so. “My first enthusiasm

Education is something that is often taken for granted in this day and age. Kids these days rebel against going to school all together. In the essays “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie and “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass, we learn of two young men eager for knowledge. Both men being minors and growing up in a time many years apart, felt like taking how to read and write into their own hands, and did so with passion. On the road to a education, both Alexie and Douglass discover that education is not only pleasurable, but also painful. Alexie and Douglass both grew up in different times, in different environments, and in different worlds. They both faced different struggles and had different achievements, but they were not all that different. Even though they grew up in different times they both had the same views on how important of education was. They both saw education as freedom and as a way of self-worth even though they achieved their education in different ways. They both had a strong mind and a strong of sense of self-motivation.

people had a good education in what they wanted. As a child, he loved reading and

When he was young Mrs. Auld, his slave masters’ wife, taught him to read and write the ABC's until her husband found out what she had been doing, forbidding her to continue. This forced him to teach himself by saving up his money to buy books and read the Bible. He often learned from white children in the neighborhood too, eventually being able to read everything he was able to see or have in his possession. Once familiarizing himself enough with the common language, he started taking lessons from The Columbian Orator, which was a lesson book designed for traditional education and public speaking. This lesson book taught him the origin of much of western philosophical thought from Greek and Latin literature, including a great deal about freedom and human

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.

In lines 33-56, Douglass’ tone shifts from the hopeful and optimistic sense of potential, to showing the overwhelming negativity slavery can have on someone. Douglass displays this by