Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Essay

Right after the Civil War ended, the newly freed slaves had one thing is their minds even more important than enjoying freedom, they wanted to be educated, they wanted to read and write. Fraser offers an introduction to this controversial topic, as it was education for public purposes in the South, this source can be considered primary although the author did not live at that time, some of the documents provided by him were written by people who lived during this time period. Among these first-hand accounts we have the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a born slave, who was so intrigued about learning how to read and write that he never gave up until he reached his goals. In a an expert from The Education Of Blacks in the South written by James A. Anderson, he made references to Harriet Beecher who said, “They rushed not to the grog-shop but to the schoolroom-they cried for the spelling books as bread, and pleaded for teachers as a necessity of life”, when speaking of slaves right after they were liberated. Frederick Douglass is the vivid example of this. He was still a slave when he first starting to show interest about reading and writing, but he is just an example of the countless slaves who desired to be able to read and write, to be literate. Douglas retails the details for which he focused his life from a very early age to learn how to read first and then write. In the narrative, he explains that right after he went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, the mistress started to teach him the alphabet and when he learned, she would help him spell words of three to four letters. But nothing last forever, and one day Mr. Auld found them and forbade his wife to further instruct the slave because it was unsafe and unlawful. In his words, based on what Douglass wrote, “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master- to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world…he would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy.”(page 97) However, these words made a great impact in Douglass, who at that moment …show more content…
From an early age he understood the importance of being educated, so he set out a goal, to learn how to read. Since he already knew the alphabet it was easier for him to pick up words, but he also had the help of a few poor white boys from the town who helped him achieved his goal. When he could finally read it was a bittersweet road, now that he could read, some documents about slavery came to his hands and enable him to think about his condition and to create a deep hatred toward the men who took him and those of the same status, out of their home in Africa and enslave them. As his master had predicted, he was by far happy and instead of thinking of education as a blessing, it was more like a curse to him. His thoughts did not leave him at any moment, and the thought of freedom appeared in his mind to never go