Preview

Compare And Contrast Frederick Douglass And Education

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
126 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compare And Contrast Frederick Douglass And Education
Slaves encounter tremendous challenges to get literate. Douglass, a young teenage slave, “live in Master Hugh’s family about seven years” (61). He is fortunate to learn the alphabet from his sympathetic mistress at first. However, Mr. Hugh perceives that his wife educates Douglass; then, he forbids his wife from teaching the salve. As a result, Mrs. Huge obeys her husband’s command; she loses her kindness to become a cruel slave owner, and she no longer teaches Douglass to read. As Douglass condemn, “education and slavery were incompatible with other each” (61). Slaveholders teach slaves to read and write, which is disadvantageous to them. When slaves become literate, they can run away to escape from their masters’ control. Therefore, education

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The short narration “Learning how to Read” by Frederick Douglass, tells a story about how Douglass being a young slave hunger to learn how to read. He mentions some of the things he need to do to learn how to read and write. Douglass being nothing but a young slave had an eager to get his education although his master had prohibited him to stop learning Douglass was very smart and brave. In this story he demonstrates to be very confident and very curious but about why his master did not want him to learn how to read and write. But Douglass creative mind urged him to get…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Learning to Read and Write by Frederik Douglass Frederik Douglass born a slave in 1818 in Maryland. He learned to read and write then he escaped to New York to become a leader in the abolitionist. He is best known of his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederik Douglass (1845)”. He described in his narrative biography his relation with Hugh family that own him as slave. He focused in the early writing of his story about his mistress, and how she was kind, warm, with tender-heart.…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    5. Which of the two farms was the seat of government for the 20 farms?…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the reading "Learning to Read and Write" by Frederick Douglass, he tells the tale of how he, a slave, learned to read and write. He explains that he lived with the Hugh's family and that the mistress was his teacher. Upon his arrival to the Hugh's family, he describes his mistress as "a kind and tender hearted woman," as she instructed him in his studies. She continued to do so until she was told he, was to no longer be instructed by her or anyone else. As she had adopted her husband's precept, as to which she became a very callous woman. He continues to explain that even with his mistress's' cruelty and prohibiting his learning, he still found ways to continue with his education. He found clever ways to encourage the little urchin children…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the excerpt “Learning to Read and Write”, Frederick Douglass talks about his experiences in slavery living in his masters house and his struggle to learn how to read and write. Frederick Douglass was an African American social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman. Some of his other writings include “The Heroic Slave”, “My Bondage and My Freedom”, and “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”. In this excerpt, Frederick Douglass uses an empathic tone, imagery, certain verb choice, contrast, and metaphors to inform African Americans of how important it is to learn to read and write and also to inform a white American audience of the evils of slavery. I find Frederick Douglass to be relatively persuasive in his argument to his intended audiences.…

    • 1455 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass is an biography about how when he was a young boy living in slavery all he wanted to do was learn to read and write, hence the title. He had to learn by making friends with poor white kids and have them help him learn. Even though these boys were poor they still had more rights and could learn freely, so this made things difficult for Frederick. He had to wait for his master to leave to be able to attempt any kind of educational skill. The author wrote this narrative of his life to inform the reader how hard learning to read and write was back then for a slave.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass in this fragment of his autobiography he tells us how with diverse tricks he succeeds in learning to read and write in an environment where slaves weren’t allowed to be literate. As he matured and developed his linguistic skills, the essence of his thoughts, and the level of understanding had transformed his ideas of freedom.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I think Frederick Douglass hoped readers would understand the importance of an education, because without an education or literacy, you couldn’t function in everyday life. From reading “learning how to read and write”, I learned that people in the past worked hard to get where we are today and we just throw it away. They worked hard for freedom and we imprison ourselves. They worked hard for an education and we don’t pay attention in school or even bother coming to class. They worked hard to get jobs and we don’t put 100% into what we do, or we just up and quit when something doesn’t go our way. Something I’ve realized while Frederick Douglass’ piece is that the mind is the WORST/MOST TERRIBLE thing to waste. Frederick Douglass wrote this piece…

    • 155 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    His new owners wife starts to teach him how to read until her husband finds out and responds in saying that “if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master” (37). Douglass, now determined to learn, continues to teach himself how to read and then begins to understand the cruelty of slavery and the presence of the abolitionist movement. He decides to plan his escape to the North.…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Many great achievements can be traced back to overcoming disadvantages. Frederick Douglass was born a slave and he had no legal rights. He was taken from his mother shortly after birth, he was uneducated, and oppressed by society, but he did not let his disadvantages in life keep him from his ambitions. Frederick Douglass escaped slavery and became an acclaimed abolitionist speaker and published author. Richard Wright was born a Negro in the South during segregation. Although he was not denied an education, he was denied the same rights as white members of society, but he did not let his disadvantages stop him from becoming an acclaimed author, publishing several books. Helen Keller had different disadvantage in that…

    • 1684 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    While reading the Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, I received an inside look on Frederick Douglass’ life as a slave and how he was mistreated. While serving his time as a slave, Frederick took this opportunity to learn how to read and write. The concept of this essay is to see if learning to read and write impacted or changed Douglass life in a positive or negative way. I will be answering to this quote in chapter 6, pg. 20 “… she very kindly commenced me in learning to spell words of three or four letters…Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her… that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read.”…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First, Douglass’ enlightenment of learning the alphabet gives him hope to building a stronger literacy for a better life than that of a slave. Then, he improves in his literacy and finds his enlightenment to then feel sad and tormented. For example, Douglass says, “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free” (191). On one hand, Douglass…

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “All knowledge is connected to all other knowledge. The fun is making the connections.” Three connections I made while reading Fredrick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write,” text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text, helped me understand the main idea, which is learning to read and write was key in Douglass’s journey to freedom. One connection, I read, “I did not dare to ask anyone about its meaning, for I was confident that it was something they wanted to know very little about,” I thought about when I was young, my parents did not want me to know that I was having surgery to have my tonsils removed (41). My parents told me that I would be taking a nap at the hospital, and I would wake up feeling better than before. Of course, I had no idea what going on at the time nor did I want to ask. Douglass, being at risk, did not want to jeopardize his safety that he already had prior to asking. He did not want to know the meaning because what he does not know would not hurt him. Looking back, if I…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It was a commonly held belief that blacks were inherently less intelligent than whites. This is what caused Douglass's independent authorship to be a unique accomplishment. In the preface of the Narrative, WM. Lloyd Garrison states that Douglass "[apologizes] for his ignorance" (3). This statement is ironic because Douglass is one of the few slaves who was literate. He apologizes for this because society believes that he unintelligent solely for his race and he may even have believed it himself. However, Douglass demonstrates his intellectual capabilities when he explains his determination to learn to read. Even though he was only taught the alphabet by his mistress, Douglass finds ways to get others to teach him how to read, write, and spell. Douglass learns the most by "converting [the little white boys in the neighborhood] into teachers" (44). He offers the hungry, poor boys bread in exchange for knowledge. Even though this is not the same as receiving a formal education, Douglass grows greatly from it. He learns to read and write and these skills are incredibly valuable to him while trying to escape slavery. He would not be able to write himself or anyone else a note from his master allowing them to escape. The other slaves who make no attempt to become literate demonished their intellectual capabilities by simply…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Douglass knowing that he could no longer be educated by Mrs. Auld, he would look for other methods to teach himself. Douglass’s determination to be educated guided him well. In chapter seven, Douglass shares how he gained an education without a formal teacher. Douglass became friends with local poor white boy’s, who he traded bread with in return of knowledge. Douglass also made use of the child of Mr. Auld, by using his educational books. Mr. Auld was right to fear the education of slaves, it was Douglass’s education which led him to seek freedom from slavery. It was education which caused Douglass the passion to better his mind. It was education which helped Douglass establish a legacy, which presented the harsh reality of being a slave. By taking a slave’s education away, a master can maintain their power other their slave, continuing their suppression. Douglass was born into a world that did not want him to be educated, but his persistence to learn resulted in him gaining both an identity and his own freedom. Education is something that many of us nowadays take for granted, but Douglass demonstrates the true power and importance of knowledge within his…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays