Kiara Fuentes

The book’s name is, “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” The significance of this book was to tell the story of how it was like to be a slave to the people up north Who was new to America and didn’t know anything about slavery, like the Irish. Fredrick was born as Fredrick Augustus Washington Bailey, in Maryland, near Easton in Talbot County. His birthday is unknown but he was born in the years of 1817 or 1818. He was born into being a field slave. When he grew up at the age of seven or eight, he was sent to be a house servant, there he learned how to read and write. He escaped in the year of 1838. When he escaped, he went to New York then found his wife, Anna Murray Douglass, then later, Helen Pitts Douglas. The story gives meaningful lessons. Lessons such as how my generation, generation Z, takes going to school for granted. We aren't thankful that we can go to school freely and without having to worry about how other people might see us as useless if we know how to read and write. Many slaves, such as Frederick Douglass, would put his life on the line just to learn the alphabet. In this book Frederick also mentions how if you were a slave and you knew how to read and write, you weren’t useful anymore. He was determined on how to educate himself and read, and write, which also goes to show that when you are determined to learn how to do something, or doing something, don’t ever let someone else take that determination and passion away from you. Even though Frederick Douglass was not allowed to learn how to read or write, he would still find ways to learn. When he was a house servant and when he had to take his master's son to school, he would make friends with white kids so that they can teach him how to read and write little by little. Sadly, situations were mostly young, black people can’t read or write are still an ongoing issue to this day. In low income neighborhoods where the majority of black people, Hispanic people, and many other races other than white, can’t get an education, or have a lack of education. Since many black people, still to this day, can’t get a job just because of their skin color, can't afford a nice neighborhood for their children, and so the children are forced to go to a school where unqualified teachers work. In the school, so many teachers don’t really bother to educate or pay attention to the kids who need a bit of more help on learning a specific type of subject. This all leads back to the time of slavery, and segregation. It is an ongoing problem in America and in Frederick Douglass his book he shows how the problems back then still affect black Americans today.