Frederick Douglas on Literacy

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the struggles encountered by Frederick Douglas as a young slave boy in his fight to become literate. Based on the text from his bibliography, this paper describes some of the hardships he faced which included a harsh slave-owner and unsuitable living conditions for education.

From the Paper:

"Douglas tells that the seeds of education were planted by his kind mistress, who in fact was a very dependent upon the will of her husband, Douglas's master: "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". In fact little Frederick only learnt the basics of ABC, taught by his mistress and that's the way his "education" was finished. Douglas describes the hardships he had to overcome in order to get at least some of the "literacy" classes. First, he had to overcome the fear of his masters and especially of his mistress, whom he respected for a fair treatment. Good relations with masters were of the primary value for poor slaves who had no rights and had no protection. Being very respectful to his mistress young Frederick understood that she, in most ways, was not different from other arrogant slave-owners."

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