What Profession Helped Frederick Douglass Learn to Read

Portrait of Frederick Douglass, 1855

Compages, similar any field, is one filled with countless recordings, writings, images, and material of its long history. Books hold the information of the ages, nevertheless and then many of us are "too decorated" to read any of it. Nosotros take our access to books for granted. But there are those of the states who genuinely want to change that. We want to spend more time reading. We know that it's a practice that can aid usa grow and better in our professional (and personal) pursuits. Just, still, we have trouble making it happen. I think that sometimes, putting things into a certain perspective can aid u.s.a. make shifts similar this in life. This commodity shares the early life of one of America's greatest citizens and how reading set him on a path to rid the globe of one of its well-nigh horrifying institutions. Hopefully, a little snippet from his life can assistance requite the states an thought on how we might situate reading into our busy lives.

Off to Rome!

As a boy, Frederick Douglass lived enslaved on the Wye Plantation in Talbot Canton, Maryland. He was under the intendance of a ruthless overseer named Aaron Anthony. Co-ordinate to Douglas, it was a terrorizing childhood. Just when he was ix years old, he caught a stroke of expert fortune. Anthony was sick and getting older, and his estate would soon be taken over past someone new. Every bit a result, the enslaved people in his possession had to be redistributed.

Instead of being shipped to another plantation, Douglass got lucky and was sent to Baltimore to alive in the home of Hugh Auld. City life versus life on the plantation? It was a deal that Frederick could not believe. He had heard of Baltimore and, excited as whatsoever boy would be, counted down the days until his deviation. Nosotros have to remember that the young enslaved boy had never seen a city earlier; he didn't even have an accurate concept of time. Life on a plantation kept enslaved people detached from the rest of the world. For Douglass, as he puts it, seeing Baltimore for the offset time was like beingness a "traveler at the offset site of Rome."

...seeing Baltimore for the outset time was like being a "traveler at the outset site of Rome"

Literacy = Freedom

After he arrived to the city, Frederick was taken to the home of his new masters, Hugh and Sophia Auld. During his first couple of years with the family, Sophia treated him much more than like a son than her belongings, making him feel almost like a "half-brother" to her real son, Tommy. Aside from her sweet nature, the true gift Sophia gave Douglass was in didactics him to read. Just afterwards a few years, when Frederick was about eleven years erstwhile, Hugh, Sophia's husband, forbade her to continue educational activity the young boy.

It was "unlawful" for a enslaved person to read in Maryland, he told his wife, and information technology would "forever unfit him for the duties of a slave." Hugh was right, and Frederick, overhearing this argument, began to envision a way to liberate himself. In his biography on the famous abolitionist, David Blight elaborates, "If 'knowledge unfits a kid to be a slave,' Douglass afterwards wrote, then he had found the motive power of his path out, or at least inward, to freedom."

Tuition Paid in Breadstuff

Despite his new boundaries, Douglass still would sneak newspapers and books into the habitation, take them to his bed, and continue in his self-education. Apace, this became a trouble in the Auld house. Sophia was constantly policing the immature Douglass' rebellious behavior, continuously catching him reading in some corner one of his smuggled books or newspapers.

Understanding that he needed to avoid Sophia's lookout and adamant to realize his literacy, Frederick, carrying his Webster'southward spelling book, headed for the streets. He made friends with some of the local white boys and would give them the bread Sophia had made for him each day as payment for spelling lessons. In that location was no stopping the young buck from reaching his goal.

From Slave to International Star

If we fast frontwards through the life of Frederick Douglass, we find him sorrowfully returning to the Wye plantation where he faced daunting hardship, a failed escape, and relentless punishment. However, luck finds him once again, and he returns to Baltimore. Later a while, Douglass the enslaved man, becomes Douglass the orator, writer, and most famously, the abolitionist. He embarks on a dramatic escape from Baltimore to Philadelphia, then to New York, and eventually changes his proper noun. (Douglass was born Frederick Bailey, he changed his proper noun to Frederick Douglass to avert recapture after he escaped. In this article I apply "Douglass" throughout to minimize confusion). Newly married and ready to comprehend his life's job to abolish slavery, Douglass turned to his most strong asset, his voice.

It's in his masterful use of words and countless speaking tours, traveling throughout the United States and eventually to Europe, that Douglass is able to make his most profound impact. He later on founded a newspaper, The N Star, writing to thousands of readers, and published three autobiographies of his life. The once curious enslaved boy was now a formidable reformer, who would cease at nothing to rid the world of the injustice of slavery.

That initial decision to learn to read, and eventually, to write, gave Douglass the tools to challenge angry mobs, racist States, and even Presidents. Reading became his fuel, and words became his weapons.

Reading Opens United states of america Up

For Douglass, reading provided him with a path to freedom. He needed to read. For united states, life is not as grim, only what reading does requite us, I remember, is only as powerful. When we open up ourselves up to the ideas of other people, humble ourselves plenty to learn from them, we tin can begin to see the world in new ways. In a profession like ours, so dependent on consistent creativity, this becomes an invaluable practise.

I remember when I read Mastery by Robert Greene. Afterwards I graduated from college, I was so eager to be "great," to accomplish a ton of things, get licensed, have my own firm. The list was endless. I wasn't content with where I was. I was impatient. Mastery helped me to understand the value in the procedure of learning something. One of my favorite quotes from the volume is: when it comes to mastering a skill, fourth dimension is the magic ingredient. After I read it, I found a new joy in being a educatee, in submitting myself under someone and enjoying the process of learning.

I grew up reading. My mother made certain of that. On boilerplate, I read about one new book every week, depending on length. I've done this on and off for years now. And fifty-fifty though all of those books impacted me in some style, there was something most this i that just hit me. Maybe it was a combination of my historic period, circumstances, and outlook. Can y'all guys relate? Was there a book that changed how you looked at things?

I think we practice ourselves an injustice by non reading. At that place are thousands of years of recorded cognition and history simply sitting out there waiting for us to access. How could we not take advantage of that?!

The Dynamic Professional person

Without fail, every person who has impacted me on some level, be information technology from their mentorship, leadership, or educational activity, has been a diligent reader (with the exception beingness those people with unique life experiences). I tin can't call back of something more unattractive than someone who is shut-minded. To quote Einstein: the measure of intelligence is the power to change. He'southward totally right.

The leaders that I've admired in my by jobs take always been those who were comfortable being wrong, or changing their minds, even later on they advocated for something that didn't work. They were open-minded. On the opposite, working under people who "were always right" and never considered any other ideas only their ain, was a consummate elevate. I couldn't get away from them fast plenty. A willingness to be open-minded coupled with an eagerness to learn always produces a dynamic professional.

What Are You Reading?

Like anything, we prioritize what'due south important to us. I think reading is of import work. Information technology's not in the same gunkhole as watching Tv or something we exercise for leisure. Douglass wasn't looking to entertain himself. Instead, he was working to empower himself. How many breakthroughs accept in that location been because someone was eager to learn, to read those who came before them? Countless.

What are y'all reading? How has it impacted you? Changed your worldview?

It's the people I've met in architecture who are some of the virtually well-read individuals. We've talked about the broad-ranging interests of our profession in by pieces. This intrinsic nature lends itself to the prolific researcher. And then, in the end, I'd go out you with a question. A serious one, share your answers in the comments or email me. What are you reading? How has it impacted you? Inverse your worldview? In a profession then tied to the well existence of the public, let's embrace this astonishing opportunity we've been given and tap into the endless cognition nosotros have right at our fingertips.

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Source: https://archinect.com/features/article/150143528/frederick-douglass-and-the-empowered-reader

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