The Importance Of Learning To Read And Write Frederick Douglass

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Learning to Read & Write Having the ability to learn is a gift. In the United States, all children under the age of eighteen are required to attend school. By doing so, it gives a to every child a golden ticket to be successful in life. On the contrary, back in the mid-1800s, learning was limited to only certain people who were able to, or afford it. Many people nowadays don't take advantage of the education that they are given, unlike Frederick Douglass who, although a slave, was fearless to overcome the painful and difficult obstacles in pursuit to read and write. No one could’ve ever imagined that learning two essential things that are needed in life, reading and writing, could be said to be painful. In the passage, Frederick Douglass said that he would give little urchins bread in exchange for reading lessons. This was because his master, Mrs. Auld, had become more harsh on him and her slaves. Although he cannot say the boy's name due to it being an offence to teach slaves to read, he has sympathy for them. To which they told him that he no more deserved to be a slave than they did themselves. Thus, giving Douglass hope, and healing the wounds created in his path to learning to read.
Frederick Douglass stated that learning how to read had been more of a curse …show more content…
He started to learn to write at Durgin and Bailey’s ship yard. The passage states that at the time, his copy-book, or his notebook, were either a board fence, brick wall, or pavement. His pen and ink were a lump of chalk. With these materials, he used the marked letters on timbers being transported to different location to learn the names of it. Like when a timber was marked “L”, it was going to the larboard side, and “S” was for starboard side. He would then practice writing what the letter spelled and would met with any boy to show them his
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