Frederick Douglass Ethos Pathos Logos

For hundreds of years, slaves in America were separated from their families to be sold off like livestock to their slave owners, then forced to work and live in unimaginable conditions, and viciously beaten for something as little as a task not fully being met. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by the self-taught, abolitionist himself, Douglass shares some light on the inhumane treatment and hardships slaves were forced to overcome in his journey to free himself both mentally and physically from slavery. Douglass appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos in order to truly open his reader's eyes to the horrors of slavery, conveying his message that slavery must be abolished.

The “Declaration of Independence” was written by one of the most accomplished of our nation’s founders, Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration was written during a time in which American Colonists tried to resolve their issues with Great Britain. On the other hand, former slave Frederick Douglass gives a speech on the topic of the Fourth of July called “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?”. Both men believed freedom was a right that is natural to all people. In order to persuade their audiences of this, each author uses ethos, pathos, and logos to support their argument.

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.

In the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave, written by himself, the author argues that slaves are treated no better than, sometimes worse, than livestock. Douglass supports his claim by demonstrating how the slaves were forced to eat out of a trough like pigs and second, shows how hard they were working, like animals. The author’s purpose is to show the lifestyle of an American slave in order to appeal to people’s emotions to show people, from a slave’s perspective, what slavery is really like. Based on the harsh descriptions of his life, Douglass is writing to abolitionist and other people that would sympathize and abolish slavery.

Pathos: emotion/value, a way of convincing an audience of an argument by an emotional response

Frederick Douglass, the author of the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass was a self-taught slave that was able to escape the brutality of slavery in the year of 1838. Frederick Douglass’s book is separated into 3 main sections, including, a beginning, middle, and end. The purpose of the narrative is to improve the audience's understanding of Douglass’s experience of being a slave, the horrible treatment slaves received, and how Douglass was able to overcome and escape slavery. All throughout the narrative, Douglass uses many rhetorical devices, including, diction, imagery, and syntax, which helps the audience understand, one of his main chapters, chapter 5. In this chapter Douglass implies that the overall purpose is to emphasize the animalistic, inhuman treatment slaves received, how Douglass felt about leaving Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, and his luck of being able to move to Mr. and Mrs. Auld's.

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.

Frederick Douglass focuses mostly on appealing emotionally to pathos through the use of imagery. He writes, “there were no beds given the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be considered such.” He again appeals to pathos when describing the eating portions. Douglass explains the eating troughs used for children and says “few left the trough satisfied.” Douglass illustrates the cruel conditions slaves faced, from the bare sleeping quarters to the harsh whippings received. This effects the reader by helping them visualize the conditions the slaves were placed in. He chose to do this to inform those who weren’t aware of what was happening inside the gated properties. Douglass next establishes credibility through the use of ethos. He begins his narrative by giving background information and stating that he has “no accurate knowledge” of his age. Douglass implies that he can be trusted because of his own personal experience.

Douglass uses imagery to inform to convey the cruel treatment of slaves. Douglass broke the gate, so Mr. Covey whipped him “causing the blood to run, and raising ridges on [his] flesh as large as [his] little finger” (Douglass 222). He appeals to his audience's sense of sight to create a mental picture and to feel the mistreatment of the slaves. This will make the audience feel shocked because it reveals the

The purpose behind Fredrick Douglass’s Narrative was to appeal to the other abolitionists who he wanted to convince that slave owners were wrong for their treatment of other human beings. His goal was to appeal to the middle-class people of that time and persuade them to get on board with the abolitionist movement. Douglass had a great writing style that was descriptive as well as convincing. He stayed away from the horrific details of the time, which helped him grasp the attention of the women who in turn would convince their husbands to help by donating money and eventually ending slavery. He used his words effectively in convincing the readers that the slave owners were inhuman and showed how they had no feelings for other human

experience to persuade the readers that slavery is cold-blooded and cruel. Douglass uses many rhetorical

To begin, Douglass uses imagery to describe the heart wrenching experience of a slave child on a plantation. Without adequate food or clothing, slave children begin the process of dehumanization. Denied blankets or beds, the children slept on the cold and damp floor and Douglass describes with horrid detail his “feet [being] so cracked with the frost, that the pen which [he is] writing might be laid in the gashes”(1836). This painful description creates empathy for a mistreated child whose only “crime” results from his birth to a black mother. In the most dehumanizing comparison, Douglass uses animal imagery to reveal the conditions and manner in which the children are fed. Douglass writes:

In some ways, Douglass’ message of the cruelty in slavery is most effectively portrayed through his word choice and language, rather than the actual presentation of evidence. At one point, after witnessing several acts of extreme violence towards slave, and even some murders, Douglass sums up the events with a common phrase among slave holders, “it was worth a half cent to kill a nigger, and a half cent to bury one.” While this may not be an actual fact, it is very logical, and shows why the courts would never convict a white man for murdering a slave. By choosing to use this statement, it shows how well Douglass understands his surrounding, and how corrupt and violent they are. This statement devalues an entire race of people, and that alone speaks to the reader’s heart. The logic of the statement

When Douglass was a young boy, he witnessed for the first time a slave getting whipped, Douglass's first encounter was of extreme cruelty that slaveholders can have. The slave receiving the whipping is Douglass' Aunt Hester. By witnessing this Douglass sees that slaves are treated no better than animals, they lived in continuous fear of being beaten if they did not behave. The issue of freedom is here as well. Do these animals have more freedom then themselves, it seems so. The slave owners dehumanized the slaves with the power of the whip, showing the horrors of traditional slavery and property they have over slaves.

He has shown that the “blessings in which you, this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common” (124). With the purpose of his speech firmly defined, he now has the liberty to expound upon the true evil of slavery that lurks in the shadow of hypocrisy. He employs the satirical technique of ridicule to expose the ugly nature of enslavement with equally ugly diction. Douglass’ disapproval ranges from “hideous” to “revolting” to “an outrage”, and culminates in the assertion that slavery is the “greatest sin and shame of America” (125). A far cry from the almost reverent tone of his opening statements, Douglass led his audience from the throes of a Fourth of July celebration to an intense degradation of the freedom they so