Frederick Douglass(1817-1895), was a famous abolitionist and writer. During his childhood he lived on plantations as a slave. One of the most impactful moments in his life was learning to read. Most slaves were illiterate due to the fact that slave owners believed that an educated slave would cause trouble. Douglass fortunately at the time he learned to read lived with a kind mistress. Before getting into more of this story, has any event in my life had the same impact that learning how to read had on Douglass’s life?
Like I mentioned above Douglass at one point in his life had a kind mistress who was decent. This mistress actually was the one who began teaching him to read, she taught him until her husband found out. After this she stopped teaching Douglass, but that did not stop him from learning to read on his own. He also got help from white children during that time; he copied letters and other written works which was how he learned to write. Learning to read and write changed his life. Because he was able to read he became discontented, just like how slave owners worried. Now he craved freedom, and to be out of slavery.
As you can probably tell Douglass learning to read was a life changing moment in his life; but has any event in my life had the same impact like the impact of Douglass learning to read? Well there actually have been a few moments in my life that had a pretty big impact on my life; but the one I will be writing about in my opinion is the one that changed my life the most. This event was about learning to read. You must be thinking, why was reading so impactful? A lot of people know how to read. Well I learned to read a little older than other people, I was almost eight years old. When I was learning to read it didn’t make any sense, the letters looked like confusing symbols that were stuck together. I was frustrated, and annoyed, I didn’t see there was any point to it. But one day reading made sense. Instead of words looking like symbols stuck together, they looked like words; words that I spoke every single day. After that I took off, before my parents and myself knew it I was reading large novels in a matter of two days. I couldn’t stop reading, I loved it and it made sense.
But the long term impact of this was the fact that I was able to do most of my school on my own, before being able to read my mother had to read things for me. Life in general became easier, I was far more independent. Also learning to read helped me learn to write which is a very important skill in my life. This is why learning to read was very impactful to me, like it was to Douglass.
The Dreamer 