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the human heart and mind, and he refused to let anything stop
him from becoming literate.ż In working toward his goal, Douglass had to be both courageous
and smart. He made friends with a number of poor white boys
and traded food for lessons in reading. To learn how to write,
Douglass was just as ingenious. In the Baltimore shipyards, he
watched ship carpenters write and carefully copied the letters.
Then, as he tells it:
After a time, when I met with any boy who I knew could
write, I would tell him I could write as well as he. The
next word would be, “I don’t believe you, Let me see you
try it.” I would then make the letters which I had been so
fortunate as to learn, and ask him to beat that. In this way
I got a good many lessons in writing, which it is quite
possible I should never have gotten in any other way.ż Douglass’s quest for literacy and, later, his escape from slavery
and work in the abolitionist movement exemplify the courage
embodied in the words intrepid and fortitude. Intrepid suggests
either daring in the face of danger or fortitude in enduring it.
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms,
fortitude suggests “prolonged endurance ... of physical or
mental hardships ... without giving way under the strain.”z Intrepid comes from the Latin in, meaning “not,” and trepidus, an
adjective that means “alarmed, scared.” Trepidus is related to the
Latin verb trepido, meaning “tremble.” Thus, to be intrepid is to
not be alarmed or scared, to not tremble, even in the face of danger.Moxie (noun)- 7KHDELOLW\WRIDFHGLI¿FXOW\ZLWKVSLULWDQGFRXUDJH
- Aggressive energy, vigor, verge, and pep or skill and know-how.