311 Frederick Douglass Learns to Read

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2021

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jacke takes a look at adult literacy and continuing education, anti-literacy laws in nineteenth-century America, and two famous passages from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), in which the young slave manages to overcome obstacles and teach himself to read and write. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated! The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature podcast is a member of the Podglomerate Network and LitHub Radio.
0:07.0	Hello, in 1847 a black minister named John Barry Meacham walked onto a steamboat in
0:19.2	the Mississippi River.
0:21.1	On the boat were desks, chairs, and a library.
0:24.9	He called the boat the Floating Freedom School.
0:28.1	And he intended to educate black people for a dollar per person for anyone who could
0:33.0	afford to pay.
0:34.6	Previously, he'd had a school on land and 300 students had turned up, but Missouri had
0:40.5	responded by banning all education for black people.
0:44.5	Undeterred, John Barry Meacham moved his school offshore to the river, where Missouri state
0:50.6	law did not reach.
0:52.9	A few decades before this, a young boy named Frederick Bailey faced a similar challenge
0:58.8	in Maryland.
0:59.8	He started to learn to read when a kindly mistress impulsively taught him the alphabet.
1:05.4	After hearing his master's objections and the reasons behind those objections, Frederick
1:10.8	became determined to learn to read, no matter what.
1:15.0	Eventually his literacy opened the door to a wide-ranging intellect that changed the
1:19.7	world.
1:20.7	We know him, of course, as Frederick Douglass, one of the titans of American history,
1:25.6	an essayist, novelist, a newspaper publisher, and autobiographer, the most famous African
1:31.4	American of the 19th century.
1:34.6	There are many moving passages in Douglass's works, but perhaps none are as moving or
	...

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