3 Lessons on Learning Better

How Frederick Douglass taught himself to read & write

Let me tell you a story about the most photographed man of the 19th century. He taught himself to read and write from age 12 and escaped slavery to become one of the most famous abolitionists.

His story symbolizes creativity, persistence, and adaptability. Something I’ve tried emulating in my life.

And something we’ve lost in the ideal of the American Dream.

Marketing tells us the “American Dream” is a white picket fence, at least 2 kids, a loving spouse, and a freshly cleaned car that’s reflective enough to blind the neighbors. And we should keep up with the Jones and Smiths down the street. If they have a new car, we get two.

Like a game of poker, never matching the other’s bet but always raising no matter the cost.

But that’s not fulfilling or practical for many people today.

Instead, what is? Cultivating a life of creativity, persistence, and adaptability.

Fredrick Douglass was born a slave in the 1800s tilling the plantations in the Southern US.

By age 8 he was sent to Baltimore where he was a slave under Hugh & Sophia Auld who tasked him with chores and raising their 8-year-old son, Thomas.

Frederick and Thomas became quick friends over the years. One day, Thomas remarks how he’ll be a man soon. Frederick replies

“You will be free as soon as you are twenty-one, but I am a slave for life! Have not I as good a right to be free as you have?”

The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

Months pass as this thought gnaws at the back of Frederick’s mind until one day Hugh Auld discovers his wife, Sophia, teaching Frederick how to read.

Hugh discovers this and rips the book away from Sophia and Frederick.

“If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy. “

— Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass

Everything clicks in Douglass’s mind. The path out of slavery to freedom lies in off-white pages of books, newspapers, and treatises.

If a slave was caught reading or writing, the punishments ranged from severe beatings to amputations to death.

By age 12, Frederick had seen the whippings, beatings, and torture from slaveholders first-hand. So, he devised a clever plan to learn how to read and write.

After Sophia Auld taught him a few letters of the alphabet, Frederick carried a small book with him on errands. When he’d have some spare time, he’d ask the boys living in the street for reading lessons in exchange, he’d pay them in bread.

He applied the same creativity to learning how to write.

The idea as to how I might learn to write was suggested to by being in Durgin and Bailey’s shipyard, and frequently seeing the ship carpenters, after hewing, and getting a piece of part timber ready for use, write on the timber the name of that of the ship for which it was intended. — Frederick Douglass

At the shipyard, the carpenters wrote letters on the timber for the part of the ship for which the timber will be used.

• “L.” was for larboard.
• “S.” for starboard.
• “A.” for aft.
• “F.” for forward.

Frederick copied the letters until he could write just as well as them. When Frederick was at home alone, he’d copy Hugh Auld’s writing by hand until he wrote just as well.

On the street, he’d run into boys his age and he’d play a game with them.

Frederick would say he’s a better writer than the boy, and of course the boy took up the challenge. Frederick would write letters and the boy would write more letters. Each would continue until the other made a mistake writing a letter. Everything became his workbook. Board fences, brick walls, pavement.

After years of effort, Frederick learned how to read and write.

3 Lessons on Learning Better

This story is incredible to me.

It’s a story of great perseverance and creativity against a system designed to keep him down. At any turn Frederick Douglass could’ve been caught, chained, and shipped to other slaveholders or killed on the spot. Yet he chose the possibility for freedom against a lifetime of slavery.

Here are 3 Lessons I’ve learned:

Lesson 1: Understanding your Environment.

Though he learned how to read and write, he was careful.

Capture meant losing everything. He looked for opportunities to learn while staying under the radar. Frederick understood the situation he was in.

When I first started working as an engineer, I experienced the usual onboarding gauntlet of paperwork, training, and easy work. I was eager to learn more and fast. So, I looked for ways to talk with my co-workers about what they do and learn from them.

My co-workers were overloaded with small tasks like documentation. I offered to pick up the slack and in exchange they taught me their skills.

This worked great for learning, but also doubled as a networking boost.

Lesson 2: Deliberate Practice

Frederick practiced reading and writing regularly.

The key was getting feedback and visible progress on his journey. Deliberate practice is about finding opportunities to practice your skills focusing on performance.

When I first started fiction writing, I published weekly. This forced me to practice regularly but also get feedback from the people who were reading my work. Overtime, this refined my storytelling and writing skills to the point where writing a short story or screenplay is as easy as reading, and I could dissect storylines of movies in real-time.

Deliberate practice is the key to high performance.

Lesson 3: Patience

Frederick started learning how to read and write at age 12 but didn’t master the skills until his mid-20s.

Years of effort paid off because he kept at it. This is one of the hardest virtues for me. I’m constantly looking for ways to improve myself and the advice I get the most from others is: “Keep going.”. I love and hate that piece of advice. It’s great because it means I’m on the right track. I hate it because I don’t know when I’ll reap what I sow.

Patience means understanding what’s in my control and staying consistent. Future consequences are inevitable from present actions. Patience is a mixture of faith and persistence. Regular practice compounds like a snowball rolling downhill until it’s large enough to shatter whatever lies in its path.

With regular writing, I will become a good writer.
With regular exercise, I will become fit.

The life of Frederick Douglass is a story about a man rebelling against a system who tried to confine him, the people who tried to shackle him, and the complacency who tried to blind him. His story is one of tenacity.

A relentless pursuit of knowledge despite dire circumstances signifies the unshakeable resolve of the human spirit.