Preview

Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
932 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Summary
Erica D Collins
Wanda Fries
Summary 1
31 January 2016

Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass
A summary by Erica Collins In Frederick Douglass’ essay “Learning to Read and Write” Frederick Douglass describes how he learned to read and write and the trials and tribulations he had to address in his circumstance of being a slave since childhood. His owners did not want him to get an education or to learn anything that could make him someone valued because for them, slavery and education were not well-matched. Although all the hindrances that his enslavers put to him were not easy, he did not stop his ambition to learn to read and write to become a person of character. Douglass looked for additional ways to learn to read and write since …show more content…
Although his mistress was kind and let him be taught how to read at the start, her husband told her not instruct him. It made her change her character to a person with a lack of emotional response for other people. But again, slaves were not supposed to get an education. Douglass also indicated that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing because related with the ignorance of fellow slaves. They were not in misery by the horrible torment that Douglass had because they didn’t know that everybody had rights of freedom and education; they didn’t know the unfairness that the slave owners were making (Douglass 71). Douglass started to think reasonably by learning to read; he starts using “Logos” and enhancing “Ethos”, meaning that the more he learned, the more he was emerging his character to get what he wanted. He also uses “Pathos” voicing his feelings of how he felt being a slave and thinking that he was not the only one who was victim of that …show more content…
I think he started to talk about his early childhood and moved on suddenly to take about teenage years. That is the period when we have to start considering life in a way of classifying ourselves and understanding the rights that one should have as human beings. For example, Douglass tells us that when he first went to live with his mistress, she was a caring person who used to treat him as she thought one human being ought to treat another; but then he was not treated as a human being but as a slave (Douglass
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Learning To Read And Write Frederick Douglass Quote Analysis
    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Learning To Read And Write Frederick Douglass Quote Analysis

    Nelson Mandela once said, “ Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” One man who lived up to this quote was abolitionist/orator, Frederick Douglass, Douglass was able to use education as weapon to verbally attack the structures and fight for the abolishment of slavery. Without Douglass being educated then we would not know Frederick Douglass for who he is today. In the narrative Learning to Read and Write the author, Frederick Douglass explains his endeavors to learn how to read and write although he is a slave. After Douglass’s instruction subsequently ended he made multiple attempts to learn how to read and write. As a child, Douglass took the initiative to seek educating himself; he also used his cleverness to gain…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Analyzing Frederick Douglass 'Learning How To Read'
    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Analyzing Frederick Douglass 'Learning How To Read'

    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
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary Learning to Read by Douglass
    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Summary Learning to Read by Douglass

    In “Learning to Read” an excerpt from his autobiography, Frederick Douglass writes about the steps he took to learn to read and write. He shows all the steps in this excerpt. He was a slave in a house; he didn’t have any opportunity to go to school or get any educations but the mistress in the house helped him and taught him the alphabet. But then Douglass’s master asked his wife to stop teaching him. She listened to her husband and turns into inhuman, an evil woman, Douglass could not recognize her anymore. Douglass writes, “She finally became even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself” (36). She changed and she became more evil, more violent than the master. But then that didn’t make Douglass stop and stand hopelessly, he found another way to learn. He tricked a kid from his neighborhood and makes that kid teach him how to read and it went well. After that he continued to find more way to learn, and try improving his reading. He found a book named “The Columbian Orator”. He used every opportunity he got try to read this book and learn the words in there. That was the final step that he took to learn to read. Some years later, after he went to a shipyard and saw and board with words, letters, and he wanted to write. He tried to copy the letters from the board. He didn’t stop; he wanted to know more about writing. He found a boy and asked him to teach him write. The boy taught him to write all the alphabet letters. Finally, the last step he took to learn to write was that he took a book and copy all the words in there and try to remember what the words looked like. That was long and not so easy time for him to learn how to read and write but it didn’t stop him from his interest in reading and writing. Even though he didn’t have any opportunity as a slave to have education, he became strong and found any way that could help him to learn. He keep reading and writing until he…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Summary
    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page

    Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Summary

    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
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Who Was Frederick's Relationship With His Father
    • 2414 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Who Was Frederick's Relationship With His Father

    Douglass learned to read by making friends with the little white boys. He would meet them in the street and turn them into teachers. Sometimes he would insist he was a better writer than the other boys, and they would challenge him, eventually teaching Douglass. Douglass would take Sophia’s child’s writing book and practice with it.…

    • 2414 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rebellion - How Ben Franklin and Frederick Douglass bettered themselves through education
    • 737 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rebellion - How Ben Franklin and Frederick Douglass bettered themselves through education

    When Mrs. Auld began teaching Frederick how to read was Douglass’s first real foray into rebellion. It was illegal to teach a slave how to read and write and after Mr. Auld reprimanded Mrs. Auld, Douglass realized that “to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man” (Douglass 20). The seed of rebellion had been planted and he had discovered his path to freedom. He was proud of his new ability and tried to practice it as often as he could by challenging children to writing letters (Douglass 26). Douglass cultivated this new ability and treats it as the reason he was able to become free.…

    • 737 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Themes In "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"
    • 1379 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Themes In "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"

    The book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass, is a story about Frederick Douglass’s life as a slave and how he goes on his quest to achieve freedom. Douglass was born into slavery and goes from master to master, and he finally sees the power of education when he reaches Baltimore to work for some new people. Here Douglass begins to learn how to read and write and he uses this to his advantage in hopes of becoming free one day. He manages to teach himself how to read in secret and then helps the other slaves become more literate. Eventually Douglass does manage to escape but he doesn’t stop there, he becomes an activist himself in hopes of ending all slavery one day. Through this book, Douglass reveals that learning is essential in order to achieve freedom, friends can help you to achieve your goals, and that slavery can have a very negative effect on a slave’s mind.…

    • 1379 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Compare And Contrast Frederick Douglass And Education
    • 126 Words
    • 1 Page

    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…

    • 126 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Comparing Henry David Thoreau And Frederick Douglass
    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Comparing Henry David Thoreau And Frederick Douglass

    He wrote about his personal experience to reach out to the audience so they can, through his words, see and feel what he went through as a slave. Douglass’s idea of protest was active and peaceful to a certain extent. Douglass made it a point to learn how to read shortly after his mistress was forbidden, by her husband, from continuing teaching Douglass how to read. Douglass. According to Douglass, his master said, “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell” (39). and Douglass did. He would do anything he could to continue his “education”. He went to children and tricked them into teaching him how to read and write. Also, he would sneak a book during any free time he had so that he can practice until he mastered it. With all of his reading, he realized that there was a life outside of being a slave and he was determined that he was not going to be a slave for his entire life, he was one day going to be free. Douglass explains how one day his life changes, “I have already intimidated that my condition was much worse, during that first six months of my stay at Mr. Convey’s, than in the last six. The circumstances leading to the change in Mr. Convey’s course…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Summary
    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Summary

    Frederick Douglass in his essay "Learning to Read and Write" explains all the difficulties he had to face when he learned to read and write in 1830s. Being a slave, it was against the law to learn to read and write, yet Douglass by risking his life, using all opportunities managed to learn reading and writing.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Literacy In Frederick Douglass
    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Literacy In Frederick Douglass

    In his first paragraph Douglass explains how he first acquired his literacy skills with “no regular teacher” but would be taught by his mistress. Who at a one point supported Douglass's education until under the “direction” of her husband ceased teaching him and attempted to negate any chance of Douglass obtaining any more knowledge. But Douglass noted satirically that his mistress was in need of “some training” in “the exercise…

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis
    • 138 Words
    • 1 Page

    Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

    In the excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass’s sad tone helps the reader understand the effect that his literacy had on his thoughts and feelings toward slavery. Douglass describes how his mistress had given him “the inch” that he needed to learn to read and how he used bread to convince the little white children to teach him. He soon found the knowledge of how horrible his enslavers were. “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity” (Douglass 120-121). This quote describes how he is depressed because he had learned the truth of his enslaves and wished that he would forget the truth. Although learning to read was a great ability he had acquired, it was a curse that led…

    • 138 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis of Frederick Douglass's "How I Learned to Read and Write"
    • 1455 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis of Frederick Douglass's "How I Learned to Read and Write"

    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
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Did Frederick Douglass Become An Abolitionist?
    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages

    How Did Frederick Douglass Become An Abolitionist?

    Douglass himself says in his autobiography, “seized with a determination to learn to read, at any cost, I hit upon many expedients to accomplish the desired end” (500). Although he was a slave, he always found a way to keep learning without letting anyone know. Douglass found many means to keep learning and also keep quiet about how he was doing it. Horn speaking about Douglass says, “In order to attain literacy, Douglass is compelled to resort to indirections’ such as exchanging bread for reading lessons from hungry white children in the streets of Baltimore” (Horn). Douglass was so determined that he probably spent many restless nights learning to read and write, whether sick or in health he kept going. Douglass knew that exchanging bread with the white children of Baltimore would be worth it because he knew that his education has no price. Douglass knows that his education could cost him his life, but still learned even when the society he lived in, didn’t want him to…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Frederick Douglass Education
    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Essay On Frederick Douglass Education

    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
    Read More

Related Topics