How i learned to read and write

Fredrick Douglass’s “How I learned to Read and Write”, is taken from his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. In this piece Douglass shares how his master’s mistress taught him his a, b, c, and to spell small words, but she was caught. It was forbidden to teach slaves to read and write. If Douglass were to learn to read he could find out that he could be free. Soon after Douglass moved in with the Auld’s Mrs. Auld insisted she teach him his a,b,c, and then she taught him to spell small words. Mr. Auld stopped the lessons immediately and Douglass was cut off. I think that Douglass wanted to read because of this. He wanted to learn so he could take an ell out of an inch. I have always been able to learn and because of school I have never been cut off as Douglass was. This is what encouraged Douglass to find other ways to learn how to read. Douglass would talk to the white boys he met on the street and turned them in to his teachers. I didn’t care so much about reading but it was always available to me. If I was cut off from learning like Douglass was I would have been driven to teach myself like Douglass did. Douglas and I are similar in a way because we both know how to read and write. I am inspired by Douglass because he was a slave and found ways to teach himself to read and write with just an inch.