Learning to Read and Write Frederick Douglass Pdf
The book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an eloquent memoir written by Frederick Douglass. In it, Douglass shares the hardships he endured as a slave and his heroic escape to the free state of Massachusetts. 1 part of his story that I constitute specially fascinating was how he taught himself how to read and write, and how he used those ii skills to impact the lives of millions.
Let'south start from the beginning
Frederick Douglass was built-in in Tuckahoe, Maryland around 1818 and had a life that was annihilation but easy.
Douglass was separated from his female parent earlier he was a year old (a common practice by slave owners during those times). She was moved to a farm that was 12-miles away and Douglass only saw her four or v times before she got ill and passed abroad.
Every bit a slave, Douglass was treated poorly. He was oftentimes overworked and underfed. He was given almost no habiliment and slept in a sack to stay warm, "In the hottest summer and coldest wintertime, I was kept almost naked...I had no bed," Douglass wrote in his memoir.
I would retrieve growing upwards in an unjust earth would suspension a person, simply Douglass survived, and would shortly thrive.
When Douglass was eight-years-old, he was sent to alive with some other master in Baltimore.
His new master'southward married woman had never had a slave earlier and taught Douglass the alphabet before the primary found out and told his wife that such an activity was illegal. Not only was information technology unlawful, simply the master added that if a slave learned to read, "It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once get unmanageable, and of no value to his master."
That moment was an inflection point in Douglass's life and those words would change his destiny forever. "These words sank deep into my centre...and called into existence 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 freedom, and although he had lost his teacher, he was determined to learn how to read: "I set out with loftier hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever toll of trouble, to learn how to read."
And so how did he do it?
Douglass carried a volume with him someday he was sent out for errands, and if he had extra time, would brand friends with young white boys and ask them for lessons.
""The program which I adopted, and the one by which I was well-nigh successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers.""
Sometimes the boys would offer lessons for gratis, and other times Douglass would pay them for lessons with breadstuff.
""This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge.""
After learning how to read, Douglass came across a book containing speeches by Richard Sheridan. Sheridan's piece of work produced in Douglass a deep dear of liberty and hatred of oppression. He read them over and over again, and became inspired to get involved in man 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 homo rights. "
Learning How To Write
Once Douglass learned to read, he ready out on to learn another valuable skill, writing.
He first learned how to write while working at a ship-thou. He watched carpenters write on timber the office of the ship the piece was intended for, and copied it downward.
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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 forward.
"I immediately commenced copying them, and in a short time was able to make the four letters named," Douglass wrote. After learning those four messages, Douglass again sought out white boys for lessons, this time for writing.
Douglass told white boys that he could write besides as them, nonetheless, they wouldn't believe him and told Douglass to evidence it. Douglass would then write the letters he knew and tell the white boys to write letters that they knew. Thus learning new letters every time he played the game.
""In this way I got a expert 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 also resourceful.
" "During this time, my copy-volume was the board fence, brick wall, and pavement; my pen and ink was a lump chalk. With these, I learned mainly how to write.""
He also waited until anybody had left the business firm to do writing in his chief's son's old spelling books.
""When left thus, I used to spend the time in writing in the spaces left in Master Thomas'south copy-book, copying what he had written. I continued to do this until I could write a hand very like to that of Principal Thomas.""
All in all, it took Douglass 7-years to teach himself how to read and write.
""I lived in Main Hugh's family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning how to read and write.""
Teaching Others How To Read
Simply it wasn't plenty that Douglass had taught himself these valuable skills, he wanted others to take the power of reading besides. He created a strong desire in his fellow slaves to larn how to read and taught lessons every Sunday.
""Instead of spending the Sabbath in wrestling, boxing, and drinking whiskey, nosotros were trying to learn how to read.""
Slaves from neighboring farms institute out nearly the lessons and Douglass's form grew from a handful of individuals to nearly 40 people.
""I had at i time over twoscore scholars, and those of the right sort, ardently desiring to learn....They were great days to my soul. The work of instructing my dearest fellow-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 mind.
Life equally a gratis human
He planned an escape and successfully made it to New York, and then upwards to Massachusetts. Equally a literate, free human being living in the North, Douglass continued to brainwash himself and networked with others working for the abolition of slavery.
He read The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper, and became more than acquainted with the anti-slavery movement. He attended speeches by William Lloyd Garrison, publisher of The Liberator, and somewhen Garrison became a mentor to Douglass.
Douglass would go on to become a national leader of the abolitionist movement, a respected American diplomat, a counselor to four presidents, a highly regarded orator, and an influential writer. He accomplished all of these feats without any formal pedagogy.
In 1845, Douglass published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass , which became a bestseller. Douglass stood equally a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Even many Northerners at the time establish information technology hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave.
Douglass ends his book by saying, "Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this little book may do something toward throwing light on the America slave organization, and hastening the glad day of deliverance to the millions of my brethren in bonds."
And past didactics himself how to read and write, Douglass was able to write his "lilliputian book" and bear on of the lives of millions and steer America towards a improve society.
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Source: https://alexandbooks.com/archive/the-incredible-story-of-how-fredrick-douglass-learned-to-read-amp-write
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