Learning to Read Frederick Douglass Norton Reader
The volume, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an eloquent memoir written by Frederick Douglass. In it, Douglass shares the hardships he endured equally a slave and his heroic escape to the free state of Massachusetts. 1 part of his story that I found especially fascinating was how he taught himself how to read and write, and how he used those two skills to impact the lives of millions.
Allow'due south start from the offset
Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland around 1818 and had a life that was anything but easy.
Douglass was separated from his mother before he was a year erstwhile (a common do by slave owners during those times). She was moved to a farm that was 12-miles away and Douglass only saw her iv or 5 times earlier she got ill and passed away.
As a slave, Douglass was treated poorly. He was oft overworked and underfed. He was given almost no habiliment and slept in a sack to stay warm, "In the hottest summer and coldest winter, I was kept almost naked...I had no bed," Douglass wrote in his memoir.
Ane would think growing up in an unjust world would break a person, but Douglass survived, and would soon thrive.
When Douglass was eight-years-former, he was sent to live with some other primary in Baltimore.
His new master's wife had never had a slave before and taught Douglass the alphabet earlier the primary establish out and told his wife that such an activity was illegal. Non just was it unlawful, simply the main added that if a slave learned to read, "It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once go unmanageable, and of no value to his main."
That moment was an inflection signal in Douglass's life and those words would alter his destiny forever. "These words sank deep into my center...and called into beingness an entirely new railroad train of idea," Douglass wrote.
""From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.""
Learning How To Read
Douglass knew that reading would lead to his liberty, and although he had lost his instructor, he was determined to acquire how to read: "I set out with high hope, and a stock-still purpose, at whatever toll of problem, to learn how to read."
So how did he practice it?
Douglass carried a book with him anytime he was sent out for errands, and if he had extra time, would make friends with young white boys and ask them for lessons.
""The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. Equally many of these every bit I could, I converted into teachers.""
Sometimes the boys would offer lessons for free, and other times Douglass would pay them for lessons with breadstuff.
""This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry fiddling urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge.""
Later on learning how to read, Douglass came across a volume containing speeches by Richard Sheridan. Sheridan's work produced in Douglass a deep love of liberty and hatred of oppression. He read them over and over again, and became inspired to get involved in human being rights.
""I read them over and over again with unabated interest...What I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of man rights. "
Learning How To Write
Once Douglass learned to read, he set out on to larn another valuable skill, writing.
He first learned how to write while working at a send-yard. He watched carpenters write on timber the office of the ship the piece was intended for, and copied it down.
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"L." was for larboard.
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"S." for starboard.
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"A." for aft.
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"F." for forrard.
"I immediately commenced copying them, and in a short time was able to brand the four letters named," Douglass wrote. After learning those iv letters, Douglass once again sought out white boys for lessons, this time for writing.
Douglass told white boys that he could write as well equally them, however, they wouldn't believe him and told Douglass to show it. Douglass would then write the letters he knew and tell the white boys to write messages that they knew. Thus learning new letters every time he played the game.
""In this way I got a good many lessons in writing, which it is quite possible I should never have gotten in any other mode.""
Not only was Douglass clever, he was too resourceful.
" "During this time, my copy-book was the board debate, brick wall, and pavement; my pen and ink was a lump chalk. With these, I learned mainly how to write.""
He besides waited until everyone had left the house to practice writing in his chief'south son'due south sometime spelling books.
""When left thus, I used to spend the time in writing in the spaces left in Master Thomas's copy-volume, copying what he had written. I continued to do this until I could write a hand very similar to that of Master Thomas.""
All in all, it took Douglass vii-years to teach himself how to read and write.
""I lived in Master Hugh'south family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning how to read and write.""
Teaching Others How To Read
But it wasn't enough that Douglass had taught himself these valuable skills, he wanted others to have the power of reading as well. He created a strong desire in his young man slaves to learn how to read and taught lessons every Sunday.
""Instead of spending the Sabbath in wrestling, boxing, and drinking whiskey, we were trying to larn how to read.""
Slaves from neighboring farms institute out about the lessons and Douglass'south class grew from a handful of individuals to near 40 people.
""I had at one time over forty scholars, and those of the correct sort, ardently desiring to larn....They were great days to my soul. The work of instructing my dear beau-slaves was the sweetest engagement with which I was ever blessed.""
Douglass was making a positive influence on his local community, but he had bigger dreams in listen.
Life as a complimentary man
He planned an escape and successfully made information technology to New York, and so upwards to Massachusetts. As a literate, free human living in the North, Douglass connected to educate himself and networked with others working for the abolition of slavery.
He read The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper, and became more acquainted with the anti-slavery movement. He attended speeches past William Lloyd Garrison, publisher of The Liberator, and eventually Garrison became a mentor to Douglass.
Douglass would go on to become a national leader of the abolitionist move, a respected American diplomat, a counselor to four presidents, a highly regarded orator, and an influential author. He accomplished all of these feats without any formal education.
In 1845, Douglass published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass , which became a bestseller. Douglass stood every bit a living counter-case to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual chapters to function as independent American citizens. Even many Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had in one case been a slave.
Douglass ends his book by saying, "Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this piffling book may practice something toward throwing light on the America slave system, and hastening the glad solar day of deliverance to the millions of my brethren in bonds."
And past education himself how to read and write, Douglass was able to write his "little book" and bear on of the lives of millions and steer America towards a improve society.
Source: https://alexandbooks.com/archive/the-incredible-story-of-how-fredrick-douglass-learned-to-read-amp-write
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