Literacy

In a society increasingly based on the rapid transmission of information, literacy becomes an indispensable and valuable asset. However, literacy was an equally important tool before the information age and even before the Industrial Revolution. Frederick Douglass, in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, describes how literacy transformed his relationship to himself and to his slave masters, enabling him to become a powerful spokesperson for abolition. Thus, literacy can be a tool for social and political change. Douglass does not note the relevance of literacy for economic success, for in the nineteenth century making a living was not as dependent on literacy skills as it might be today. A report published by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry entitled “The Importance of Literacy and Numeracy Skills” champions the role of literacy in boosting business and national economies. The report reveals the role of literacy in the information age: as an asset not only meaningful for the individual but also for economic growth and prosperity. Different perspectives on the significance of literacy, outlined by Douglass in the mid-nineteenth century and by an Australian organization in the early twenty-first century, nevertheless clarify the value of literacy in furthering personal, social, political, and economic goals. However, because of the impact of personal narrative, and his ability to link literacy with freedom, Douglass’ text presents a more poignant and meaningful argument.

Frederick Douglass “had no regular teacher” to help him read and write (p. 257). Slaves were not permitted to learn literacy skills as a rule, because slave owners knew that the power to read and write would quickly translate into the political power to organize resistance movements. Douglass in fact used his newfound literacy skills toward his own emancipation and toward the emancipation of his brethren, because as soon as he learned how to read Douglass encountered abolitionist texts that opened his eyes to the origins and brutality of the institution of slavery. Learning to read and write became subversive activities for Douglass and his description of bribing young white boys for their school books serves as a powerful reminder of how literacy was not always as free as it is today. Most children in the twenty-first century take for granted their education, even viewing literacy as a chore. For Douglass and other slaves like him, however, literacy was a gift and a means of salvation.

Literacy was held out as a means of social control and still is. The report by the Australian Chamber of Commerce suggests that literacy equals financial success and because financial success is equated with political power, literacy can be easily connected with personal and social empowerment. Douglass notes that his masters perceived his learning to read as an acute “danger,” and as a result Douglass had to hide his papers and books (p. 257). His mistress, notes Douglass, believed that “education and slavery were incompatible with one another,” (p. 258). Douglass came to understand why: by restricting a slave’s ability to read and write, masters could maintain control and order. When slaves began to read, they learned that they were not alone in their suffering and that there were means by which to extricate themselves from their oppressive and violent conditions. Remaining illiterate also meant that a slave would be imprisoned for life, within a state of total “mental darkness,” (p. 257).

The Australian Chamber of Commerce addresses the “problem” of illiteracy with statistics instead of stories. Although facts and statistics aptly convey