Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Devices

In What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, Frederick Douglass talks about his thoughts regarding how “the American slave trade, (is) sustained by American politics and American religion” (Douglass, p. 7). Douglass starts off in his speech pointing out the differences that Americans of different color encounter. A notable difference is how a person of color can be enslaved. Slavery was most significant for southern states, though through laws that changed. He says that “by an act of the American Congress...slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form…(and) is now an institution of the whole United States” (Douglass, p.8). Douglass continues that through the use of “the

Douglas conveys a message that slaves should be free. He gave the speech to the room of mainly white people. Douglas uses various rhetorical devices in his speech to persuade the audience. He uses the examples of the occupations of the slaves, and uses laws that are against slaves to prove his argument. Furthermore, he makes use of passionate diction to show his strong emotion about the subject.

Many would argue with justification that Frederick Douglass has adopted, to forge his narrative voice, a strong tool of the white, educated society which, in its Southern substantiation, has held him captive. Douglass in part takes the reins of his destiny by (eventually and initially nervously, according to the Narrative) addressing an audience which would once have been unaddressable. When Douglass was a slave the most contact he had with the abolitionists was, at best, their addressing of him, in small, distant doses, through the literature of which Douglass managed to get a hold. A slave can take orders from Southern whites and occasionally receive information or ideas from Northern whites (or abolitionists), but a certain degree of power or status, springing out of ability and freedom to articulate, is required to address them in return. The power to address is, in a small way, a sign of equal intellectual and social footing.

Another example of ethical appeal used by Douglass is when he states “But I fancy I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make…” (par. 8). Douglass is pointing out the fact that even though there are abolitionists they aren’t doing the most in their power to end slavery. The public doesn't know what is truly being done to the slaves because the slave owners are keeping it all behind closed doors.

Frederick Douglass touches on the fight for African-American rights in the 1852 America in his writing“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” speech, he uses rhetorical devices in order to build and establish an argument. In his speech, his intention is to make slavery completely abolished . Frederick Douglass believes that America’s independence celebration on the fourth of July is not right when not all American’s truly have that right because of slavery. Through his use of three rhetorical devices, ethos, pathos, and logos, he gradually persuades the audience into believing that black people are deserving of the same rights as white men do.

Douglass uses rhetorical questions when he wants us to think about how slavery will affect our next generations to come. Elizabeth Cady Stanton does not use rhetorical questions she is more on base with her speech. Douglass uses a lot of rhetorical questions in his speech. They both have knowledge of their topic. Why he used rhetorical questions he wants us to understand that slavery is getting worst. He has proof because he is a former slave. He wants

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave his remarks at the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York in honor of the Fourth of July. Douglass uses his platform to highlight the irony of inviting a once enslaved man to speak on a day that celebrates freedom, liberty, and justice. To challenge Americans celebration of the Fourth of July, Douglass exposes the hypocrisy of America’s values: they preach and celebrate freedom, yet condone the enslavement of individuals on the basis of skin color. In his speech, Douglass praises the character of the Founding Fathers, then harshly criticizes the character of the American citizens to highlight American hypocrisy. As an ingenious orator, how does Douglass use the two strikingly different passages to build a cohesive argument that convinces his audience to accept his agenda?

In Modern day America, the thought of slavery is horrifying. It is a dark chapter in the American history and should be fought against at all costs now. However, American used to know the reality of the atrocities that occurred on various southern plantations. Its because of slave narratives that the American people have come to realize the inhumane nature of slavery and thus, that led to political activism. One Slave that helped spread awareness of slavery in the united states was Frederick Douglass “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”. Due to his extraordinary use of figurative language to help support his argument. Douglass succeeds in arguing his

To successfully prove his claim, Douglass uses pathos appeals, often making the reader imagine what it would be like to be in his shoes, or those of the slave owners. Figurative language was often employed with similes or metaphors, which assisted the reader in understanding what the effects of slavery felt like. Descriptive language was often used to narrate extensive, passionate stories. Diction was key to making descriptive language effective in employing pathos. It is important to note that the reason for which Douglass is able to make such astute observations regarding his time as a slave is that he had an education, but nevertheless experienced slavery, as a slave. Without this education, he never could have reflected on what life as a slave meant. If he had been an educated slave owner, he never could have looked at the situation objectively. Douglass’ unique situation justifies him in making this claim, and enables him to back it

As an African American male, Fredrick Douglass had to prove to the rest of society that what he wrote was worth reading. In the Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, Douglass uses his natural skills as an orator to create an emotional response in his audience. In order to demonstrate the inalienable right and existence of black humanity, Fredrick Douglass explores the shock and brutality of being a slave, the dehumanization of the slaveholders, and the hypocrisy of southern Christians.

      In conclusion Douglass express the importance of  human spirit and mental darkness through understatement, personification, and diction to help the readers fully understand the aspects of being a slave. This should matter in life today to never give up and keep asking questions. After reading Douglass, many literature teachers use his work to display a correct use of rhetorical devices and how they can positively affect writing and analyzing literary

Fredrick Douglass gives readers insight into the unexamined life of a thoughtful slave. Throughout his journey from slave to free man, Douglass transforms himself from the overly perpetuated “contented” slave to an individual free thinker. Unfortunately, he is faced with the sharp reality of the manufacturing of slaves for revenue, and grapples with his own morality and those of the people around him. His risky intuitions and opinions of slavery and the bondage of people by people challenged the profit-seeking mentalities of the slave owners and the purposeful manipulation of slaves to be compliant. Fredrick Douglass, through his narrative, proves he is an exception in his community and shows how his journey to become educated leads to personal discoveries about his purpose and the role he played in the artificiality of slavery.

Frederick Douglass was an orator and writer for the abolition movement. He was born into slavery and knows from personal experience how the institution dehumanizes everyone involved. His masters’ wife taught him the alphabet which was the start of Douglass learning how to write and speak out against slavery. His Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass was an attempt to describe the peculiar institution of slavery with out disrupting the sensibilities of his readers. In order to accomplish this Douglass must get his audience to relate to and identify with his life as a slave. He incorporated the same exploitive techniques used in the sentimental novel. This was an 18th century European novel style that engaged readers’ emotions to

Freedom has been a battleground fought over for centuries by groups seeking their acceptance into society. Frederick Douglass, an American slave during the 1800s, is one of the first slaves to seek his freedom during this time and goes on to explain how within his novel The Narrative of Frederick Douglass. The idea of freedom, in Douglass’s eyes, changes drastically throughout his story as a slave. He first makes the connection of inequality as a young boy which sets into action a course of events for Douglass to discover what freedom truly is. Throughout Douglass’s slave life, freedom is there to usher him to the right path, ultimately showing that freedom meant to have the ability to think freely, to possess an education, and above all to be human; for a slave to be viewed in the same way whites viewed themselves.

In an autobiography called Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, written by himself, the author asserts that the way to enslave someone is to probit he or she from all learning. Douglass supports his claim by first, learning to read and second, by gaining his freedom. His purpose is to influence change in order to abolish slavery by using ethos, logos, and pathos. Based on the purpose of the book as well as the stories he tells, Douglass is writing to influence powerful people to abolish the horrible reality known as slavery; developing a sympathetic relationship with the audience. Although slavery was common and many people thought nothing of it, Douglass realized that the real way to enslave someone was to keep them from all learning, which is proven throughout the book.