Frederick Douglass Essay

Slavery is a humongous topic involving both slaves and former slaves. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Story is one such story. Douglass suffered punishments, and watching others get punished, he uses those experiences to make his argument against slavery.Douglass’ tone in the narrative is sarcastic and dark. Frederick Douglass successfully uses vast quantities of rhetorical devices, illuminating the horror and viciousness of slavery, including the need to eliminate it.

After about nine chapters detailing his slave life, he says, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” (Douglass, 75) He then goes on to describe the turning point for him that sparked his quest for freedom. By structuring his narrative this way, he reveals both sides- how slavery broke him “in body, soul, and spirit” (Douglass, 73) and how it eventually “rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom” within him (Douglass, 80). In doing so, he gives the reader an insight into how he became himself, and reinforces the evils of slavery in the way it shapes a man’s life. Douglass’ use of diction and structure effectively persuades the reader of the barbarity and inhumanity that comes as a result of slavery.

“You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angel, and that fly round the word; I am confined in the bands of iron!” He compares himself to the boats. He depicts how the boats are able to move freely whereas he is held in lifelong bondage. It is evident that he also uses parallel sentences with antithesis. He conveys some sense of complexity in himself and a greater insight to his feelings. The exclamatory sentences intensify Douglass’s statements about his feelings as a slave which reinforces the author’s rhetorical

As Douglass began to acquire a greater understanding of his condition through reading, he felt as if “the silver trump of freedom had roused [his] soul to eternal wakefulness.”20 Douglass’s use of the word silver helps express the precious nature of freedom, as well as the idea that it’s beckoning the enslaved with its gleam. Through the contrast between the purity of freedom and the corruption of slavery, Douglass’s choice of words humanizes himself because it demonstrates his attention to detail as he constructed this narrative. Likewise, he expresses that “[the slaves selected to go to the Great House Farm] would make [woods] reverberate with their wild songs, revealing at once the highest joys and the deepest sadness.”21 Douglass's usage of juxtaposition to draw attention to the vastness of emotion expressed by these songs demonstrates his own humanity, for this selection highlights Douglass's talent to capture the emotional peaks and troughs that are endured by

Frederick Douglass states “Nothing would have been done if I had been killed… such remains, the state of things in the Christian city of Baltimore” (124) and conveys his audience through the use of thoughtful pathos and shameful satire. Frederick Douglass was a slave himself and he acknowledged that the death of slaves brought no pity into the slave owners’ minds. To evoke feeling into his white abolitionist and non-abolitionist audience, he placed himself into the situation of being the one who gets killed. As a result of using death, Douglass provokes anger since these individuals did not consider the death of a slave as significantly important.

Frederick Douglass once said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning” (Think Exist). Frederick Douglass, a man born into slavery overcame numerous obstacles to eventually become a chief abolitionist as well as a diplomat. Frederick Douglass got his hands on a book entitled “The Columbian Orator” and introduced himself to the word abolitionist. This sparked his interest and set off a fiery passion for freedom. Douglass realized that slaveholders used ignorance as a tool to enslave their subjects; slaveholders did not want slaves to have the capacities of reading and writing.

In his harsh, angry speech, Frederick Douglass mocks the audience in a fight against slavery. He makes considerably accurate and biting arguments towards those who regard slavery as an outstanding example of American freedom. “There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.” He modifies his statements through rhetorical strategies including tone, ethos, and pathos and creates a magnificently harsh speech worthy of fame.

On page 56, Douglass exclaims,“‘You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip!’”(56). In his cry to the white sails, Douglass highlights the real horrors of slavery by using metaphorical comparisons. He uses kind and joyful words like “merrily” and “gentle gale” to describe the freely moving sails but dark and gloomy words like “sadly” and “bloody whip” to describe himself and his life. This dichotomy is an effective way in which Douglass may have changed the view of slavery in the minds of his readers.

Douglass has said “ The evils most fostered by the slavery and oppression would transfer from their system to the inherent character of their victims. Thus the very crimes of slavery become slaveries best defence. By making the Enslaved a character fit only for slavery, they execute themselves for refusing the make slaves a free man”

In lines five through fifteen, Douglass’ dissertates his first real experience of excitement and freedom. To introduce the latter experience, Douglass opens up his story using parallelism: “I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free State. I have a never been able to answer the question with any satisfaction to myself” (5-6). Douglass

In his search for freedom from the shackles of slavery, Douglass discovered that the enslavement of his race embodied injustice. Using this line of thinking, Douglass arrived at the conclusion that freedom equates with justice. He details his unbearable state of mind after realising the injustice of his enslavement when he states,”It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me”(Douglass 35). Freedom acts as Douglass’s driving motivation

At first glance, the book “my bondage and my freedom by Frederick Douglass appeared to be extremely dull and frustrating to read. After rereading the book for a second time and paying closer attention to the little details I have realized this is one of the most impressive autobiographies I have read recently. This book possesses one of the most touching stories that I have ever read, and what astonishes me the most about the whole subject is that it's a true story of Douglass' life. “ Douglass does a masterful job of using his own experience to expose the injustice of slavery to the world. As the protagonist he is able to keep the reader interested in himself, and tell the true story of his life. As a narrator he is able to link those

The definition of reform is to make changes in something; socially, politically, or economically, to improve it. One of the world’s most prominent writers, Thomas Carlyle, said, “Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.” According to Carlyle, the action of reforming is not easy to do for yourself, let alone for a whole nation of people. While many revolutions have tried, only a few have successfully reformed the people around them. Such innovators include Frederick Douglas, Charles Darwin and Steve Jobs.

Frederick Douglass is a fugitive slave in the north, a place full of free citizens. Douglass left the dehumanizing “chains” of slavery on September 3, 1838. He succeeded in reaching the free state of New York, though unable to explain how out of fear. Though physically free, Douglass is confined with the overbearing feeling of being a fugitive slave in the free society.

In the autobiographical narrative “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”, Fredric Douglass shares his momentous journey from slavery to freedom and the paths he took to get to freedom. From the beginning of the book, Douglass is a slave literally, both body and mind. Once the book comes to an end, he gets his authorized freedom and freedom of his mind. Each chapter of the book is like a series of "realizations,” moments of insight, that he has along the way.