Sequoyah’s writing system was so simple that a Cherokee speaker could master reading and writing in a few days.
Almost overnight, the Cherokee became a literate people. Suddenly, they could write down their laws and history, record information about medicines, healing techniques, and business transactions, and communicate with friends and relatives who were far away.
Sequoyah said he valued his written language because it unburdened his memory, freeing his mind to think of other things.
As he once said, “When I have heard anything, I write it down, and lay it by and take it up again at some future day. And there find all that I have heard exactly as I heard it.”
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