Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass - Book Report/Review Example

When Douglas attained 12 years, he acquired a book, the Colombian Orator that gave him an insight about slavery. Within the book was a conversation between a slave and his master. The slave had made three futile attempts to escape but finally managed to negotiate his terms of slavery. Douglas quest for education spurred deep resentment against his masters and the whites. The more he read about slavery, the more he loathed the white people. He hated himself for being black and even worse hated how the whites treated him and fellow blacks.

Douglas learned about the abolishment campaign by citizens from the North but lacked the nerves to see it happen. Once when helping Irish whites unload a scow of stones, he learned of the northerners’ piety for the black slaves in the south. His resentment peaked when he decided he needed to run away but later settled to stay since he was young. For him to earn a dignified life as any other free American, he needed to know how to read and write. He knew how to read but was not good at writing.

Douglas made an effort to educate himself on how to write with the help of other white children (Frederick). It was a long, painstaking journey for Douglas to learn how to read and write.