Learning to Read and Write

Habibat Oguntade
Ap English III
10/07/09
Learning to Read and Write
Frederick Douglass was an African American slave in the United States in the 1800's. He was one of the foremost leaders petitioning against slavery. Douglass publicized his views through writing, reading, and speaking and was always the center of attention. In 1838 he escaped from slavery and spent the rest of his life establishing himself as a public speaker and advocate abolitionist. Douglass set himself apart from other slaves of that time through his numerous accomplishments including learning how to read and write. One of Douglass's primary beliefs was that literacy was power, and with literacy, once will be cognizant and aware of what is going on in the world. This story shows how white slaveholders perpetuate slavery by keeping their slaves ignorant. At the time Douglass was writing, many people believed that slavery was a natural state of being. They believed that blacks were inherently incapable of participating in civil society and should be kept as workers for whites.
This story also explains the strategies and procedures by which whites gain and keep power over blacks from their birth onward. Slave owners keep slaves ignorant of basic facts about themselves. This enforced ignorance robs children of their natural sense of individual identity. As slave children grow older, slave owners prevent them from learning how to read and write, as literacy would give them a sense of self-sufficiency and capability. “ Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a news paper. She seemed to think that here lay the danger” Slaveholders understand that literacy would lead slaves to question the right of whites to keep slaves. By keeping slaves illiterate, Southern slaveholders maintain control over what the rest of America knows about slavery. Just as slave owners keep men and women as slaves by depriving them of knowledge and education, slaves must seek knowledge and education in order to pursue freedom. By making friends with some boys in the area where he was enslaved , Douglass learns this notion that knowledge must be the way to freedom, as slave owners forbids their wives to teach Douglass how to read and write because education ruins slaves. Douglass sees that they unwittingly revealed the strategy by which whites manage to keep blacks as slaves and by which blacks might free themselves.
Douglass presents his own self-education as the primary means by which he is able to free himself, and as his greatest tool to work for the freedom of all slaves. Though Douglass himself gains his freedom in part by virtue of his self-education, he does not oversimplify this connection. Douglass has no illusions that knowledge automatically renders slaves free. Knowledge helps slaves to articulate the injustice of slavery to themselves and others, and helps them to recognize themselves as men rather than slaves. Rather than provide immediate freedom, this awakened consciousness brings suffering. Once slaves are able to articulate the injustice of slavery, they develop great animosity towards their masters.
Although Douglass had to go through a lot of difficulties, before he could become literate, it can be concluded, that he was very lucky to gain the little he gained at that time, which made him superior over other slaves that remained illiterate. As a representative slave, Douglass’s individual characteristics matter less than the similarity of his circumstances to those of all other slaves. Through this process, certain traits remain constant in young Douglass’s character. Though often isolated and alienated, Douglass remains largely optimistic about his fate and maintains a strong spiritual sense. He is exceptionally resourceful, as demonstrated by his untraditional self education. Finally, Douglass has a strong desire to help others, expressed in part through his commitment to improving the lives of his fellow slaves