What was Frederick Douglass' education?

Answer 1

When Frederick Douglas was a child in Maryland, state law prohibited teaching a slave to read or write. The wife of his master secretly taught him the alphabet, and he taught himself to read.
At a time when slaves were not allowed to learn how to read and write, Frederick Douglass had some very good people in his life. They ignored the law and helped him in his quest for knowledge. Initially, his masterâ??s wife, taught him to read, but after admonishments from her husband this ended. However, white boys young Frederick could play with when his chores were done, were willing to give him â??Lessonsâ?? sometimes in exchange for a biscuit he had pilfered from the kitchen. Based on these early influences and his own thirst for knowledge, Frederick became an acclaimed writer and journalist.

Answer 2

I don't know about Fredrick Douglass, but you sure weren't 'education'!!!

Also, there's a wonderful site called Wikipedia for lazy people who don't want to do their research!

When Douglass was about twelve years old, Hugh Auld's wife Sophia started teaching him the alphabet despite the fact that it was against the law to teach slaves to read. Douglass described her as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated Douglass like one human being ought to treat another. When Hugh Auld discovered her activity, he strongly disapproved, saying that if a slave learned to read, he would become dissatisfied with his condition and desire freedom. Douglass later referred to this statement as the "first decidedly antislavery lecture" he had ever heard.[10] As told in his autobiography, Douglass succeeded in learning to read from white children in the neighborhood and by observing the writings of men with whom he worked. Mrs. Auld one day saw Douglass reading a newspaper; she ran over to him and snatched it from him, with a face that said education and slavery were incompatible with each other.

He continued, secretly, to teach himself how to read and write. Douglass is noted as saying that "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom."[11] As Douglass began to read newspapers, political materials, and books of every description, he was exposed to a new realm of thought that led him to question and condemn the institution of slavery. In later years, Douglass credited The Columbian Orator, which he discovered at about age twelve, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights.

When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he taught other slaves on the plantation to read the New Testament at a weekly Sunday school. As word spread, the interest among slaves in learning to read was so great that in any week, more than 40 slaves would attend lessons. For about six months, their study went relatively unnoticed. While Freeland was complacent about their activities, other plantation owners became incensed that their slaves were being educated. One Sunday they burst in on the gathering, armed with clubs and stones, to disperse the congregation permanently.