Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Strategies

In his, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass experiences the songs of his brothers and expresses his understanding of this passage. Through his use of structured diction, Douglass reveals the eternal enslavement of his mind caused by the deterioration of his slave self, exposing his apprehension of the songs.

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.

Frederick Douglass was a freed slave in the 1800’s who was famous for his ability to read and write, uncommon of a black man at the time. On July 4th, 1852, he gave a speech to citizens of the United States. In this speech, he called out the “hypocrisy of the nation”(Douglass), questioning the nation's treatment of slaves on a supposed day of independence. Frederick Douglass effectively uses rhetorical strategies to construct his argument and expose the hypocrisy of the nation.

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.

In Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, he writes in depth about his life as a slave. His intent for the book is to abolish slavery. He targets the white Northern men by using the three rhetorical appeals: logos, ethos, and pathos, to convince his goal. He also portrays the religious aspect, in Christian values. Narrating his personal experiences with his masters and fellow slaves, he states reasons of the immorality of enslavement. Douglass argues that slavery ultimately dehumanizes slave owners and demonstrates that slavery is immoral.

America’s history is overrun with oppression and injustice based on race, ethnicity, and other traits that innocent victims have no control over. As a result, the reputation of the United States is forever tainted by it’s dark past, and still practices these surviving habits of hatred. Civil liberty issues faced since the establishment of the country have yet to be resolved because of the ever-present mistreatment, corruption in positions of authority, and the dehumanization of minorities.

One of the strongest pieces of evidence the author uses in support of their argument is, “At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed… For is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder… The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled… and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.” What Douglass tries to accomplish is to tell the citizens that words will not make a difference if they want change. Only violence can make an impact because the slaves’ voices are not really being heard. This evidence is strong because Douglass attempts to use the rhetorical appeal of pathos in

During the mid-19th century, the issue of slavery divided the nation between two firmly rooted camps, the southern slave owners and the northern abolitionists. As authors and activists attempted to shed light on the issue of slavery, they appealed to the millions of citizens who were in between camps, whether due to a lack of knowledge or lack of importance in their daily lives. The story of Frederick Douglass is one such literary work that helped inform American citizens on the horrors of slavery, offering a first-hand account as Douglass rose from a slave to an educated free man. Within his narrative, Douglass describes his life as a slave and transition into American society with newfound freedom, highlighting the dehumanizing results of slavery. Furthermore, Douglass appeals to the three Aristotelian appeals throughout his novel, synthesizing the argument that slavery should be abolished. Specifically, Douglass makes use of vivid imagery that appeals to readers’ pathos, inciting horror in his audience at the sight of atrocities committed by slave owners. Moreover, Douglass references a number of prominent literary works when forming analogies between slavery and history, appealing to readers’ ethos by illustrating his education and increasing the credibility of his argument. Finally, Douglass utilizes a parallel sentence structure to appeal to readers’ logos by presenting his arguments in a cohesive and logical manner when writing of the slave’s lack of autonomy over their own lives .

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Douglass himself, was about his

In Douglass's slave narrative he explains the norms of living as a slave, from the time he spent as a child to adulthood. Douglass was lucky enough to know his mother for a short time he recalls in chapter one paragraph three “I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day.” (2)She would sneak away to see Douglass in the hours of the night regardless of the risks. This was a sort of tradition for Douglass and his mother she would sneak away to see him spend a little time with him then be gone by morning. Douglass regards his mother as a stranger even though she would come to see him.

This quote by Frederick Douglass appeals to the audience's emotion through imagery. Douglass uses rhetorical strategies in his work to express the fact that you can never escape slavery. In. The beginning the audience feels a sense of safety in the beginning of Douglass's quote. He describes how he first felt when he found himself escaped and in a free state.

rederick Douglass was born into slavery sometime around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. Frederick douglass had a very challenging life, people were very racist and were very for slavery. Douglass was very Anti slavery and attended the anti slavery conventions. Douglass used a very simple style of writing and it was very direct, and said thing straight up, since it was his story going thru life wanting equal rights for the black community Douglass targets his essay towards the white community Douglass used diverse forms of syntax, figurative language, and metaphorical phrases in his writing. His tone is very strong and and makes someone feel like they are listening to him, his main goal is to change the way the white community looks at the

In Massachusetts in 1852, Frederick Douglass spoke at a celebration for the Declaration of Independence. His speech moved yet angered the audience, which seemed as if it ensued as the overall goal of the speech. Douglass makes this goal possible by using multiple rhetorical strategies. In addition to that, he uses rhetorical strategies to argue against slavery. Frederick Douglass used tone, figurative language and pathos to argue against slavery.

Throughout “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” one of Frederick Douglass’s goals is to debunk the mythology of slavery. These mythologies vary between the North and South. Northerners believe that the morals of slavery are wrong, while Southerners believe that slavery is a necessity of life. In his narrative, Frederick Douglass rebukes the romantic image of slavery, testifies against the belief of black intellectual inferiority, and proves that the system promotes the disloyalty among slaves.

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.