Frederick Douglass Questions

1. Frederick Douglass taught himself how to write by helping at a shipyard in which the job requires the workers to write little notes on the timber. Later as he tried to improve his writing, he challenged boys to writing contests and he tries to study and copy Master Thomas handwriting or copies the italics in the Webster’s Spelling Book. He taught himself how to read after his mistress taught him the fundamentals of the English language. When he learned how to read, he decided to improve is reading-by-reading many books and use the dictionary to improve his vocabulary. Learning to read and write had brought him to reach a level past his potential to be a brilliant man and was able to understand the world better through reading.



2. His mistress and Master Hugh have both underwent a learning process. They both realized that by teaching a slave the fundamentals of the English language (or any language for that matter), you no longer control their mind, let alone their future; no longer making that person a slave.



4. I find it painfully disturbing that some black parents do not educate their children on their history. It looks bad on everyone when one cannot tell his past; therefore, the child will not lead himself for the future generation of the masses to a better life if he or she cannot benefit from the past. They might as well be a slave to because of someone else’s trickery.