Douglass: Learning to Read

by Cameka Ben

According to Frederick Douglass’s narrative account, he was first introduced to reading by the wife of one of his owners until her efforts wee discovered by her husband.  Douglass’s master didn’t want him to learn, saying, “‘If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell.’”  Douglass argued that learning to read was something that would and did give him great power.
   

Douglass thought differently when this incident occurred.  The feeling of knowing why the whites didn’t want him to read made him want to read even more.  He would not stop until he could not only read, but write as well.

In his quest to read, Douglass would make poor little white boys in the street his teachers.  They were not prevented from reading based on their whiteness, so they could help him.  He took advantage of the fact that they were poor and often hungry.

Whenever Douglass ran an errand, he would take bread and a book with him.  The boys would take the bread and Douglass would take the knowledge.  The boys had no idea how much more the knowledge meant to Douglass than the bread.

In the end, these boys made it possible for Douglass to read and he was grateful.  In his Narrative, he wanted to give their names, but dared not do so, stating “I am strongly tempted to give the names of two or three of those little boys, as a testimonial of the gratitude and affection I bear them; but prudence forbids.”  Instead, he said how grateful he was to them, mentioning the area in which they lived which was Pilot Street near Durgin and Bailey’s ship-yard.

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Cameka Ben is a student at North Harris College.