The Role Of Literacy In Frederick Douglass

Fredrick Douglass became a free African American through the role that literacy played during his time as a slave that inspired him to rise above his situation, by learning how to read/write, and gain freedom. Before Douglass became interested and persistent in attaining knowledge in both reading and writing he expresses little knowledge or confirmation about his own background. Which (he says) includes his uncertainty in his own age, due to not having seen any official authentic record as proof of his birth and ignorance in who his father is. This, therefore, gives him nothing to self-identify with and as Douglass points out this is the very “… [W]ish of most masters … to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (1182). By keeping such knowledge