Learning To Read And Write Frederick Douglass

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Slavery was a hopeless ordeal for the African American race. They spent their days laboring away at plantations to farms to factories, from the crack of dawn till the fall of night. Earning just enough to provide for themselves and their families, the industrious slaves would work through the harsh and painful conditions forced upon them by their so called “owners”. A key figure from the mid-1800’s slavery era was Frederick Douglass, author, abolitionist, social reformer, and former slave. Douglass’s most important legacy left behind by him was his use of words to fight for the freedom of himself and the rest of the African American population. Douglass’s best-selling novel, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas, concerned the freedom …show more content…

This can be determined by the title, Learning to Read and Write, as well as the first few sentences of the excerpt. “I lived in Master Hugh' s family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write . In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems. I had no regular teacher. My mistress who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by anyone else… I immediately commenced copying them, and in a short time was able to make the four letters named. After that, when I met with a boy who I knew could write, I would tell him I could write as well as he. The next word would be, “I don’t believe you. Let me see you try it.” I would then make the letters which I had been so fortunate as to learn, and ask him to beat that. In this way I got a good many lessons in writing, which it is quite possible I should never have gotten in any other way.” This clearly brings out the fact that Douglass would do anything to get the education he desired as long as it was moral. It shows the dedication he had to learn how to read and write. It proves that once he put his mind towards something, he would jump over as many hurdles in his way to accomplishing it. This ultimately the ethical appeal, or ethos, in his

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