While reading Frederick Douglass’ “Letter to my Former Master” and “Letter to Henry C. Wright”, it became clear that both beautifully written pieces were criticisms of the receiver. While writing to Thomas Auld, the former master, Douglass does not go deliberately out of his way to insult Auld, instead, Douglass describes their relationship as “ long and intimate, by no means friendly [that] unhappily subsisted between [Auld] and [Douglass], leads [Douglass] to hope that [Auld] will easily account for the great liberty which [Douglass] now take in addressing [Auld] in this open and public manner.” Douglass does not want to ridicule Auld which adds to his negative demeanor towards slaves. Instead, Douglass is going to justify why it is …show more content…
Wright also criticizes the receiver. During the letter, Douglass indicated that Wright has not done enough to be an advocate of anti-slavery because Wright “[has not] acted quite consistently with [his charaver for promptness, in delaying [his] advice till he transaction was completed.” Douglass does not appreciate the two-sided ace of Henry C. Wright because as an advocate of anti-slavery, Wright should stand firmly against the sanction of robbing slaves for their independence. However, in this letter, Douglass is audacious of Wright. Douglass does not fear Wright because he knows that slaves who buy their freedom are not doing the correct thing. He knows that he is alright with being in Europe although everything he has ever worked for is in America. Frederick Douglass will not “sanction [the government’s] right to rob [him]” because he is naturally born with the right to be free. Henry C. Wright was an advocate for feminism, anti-slavery, and giving people their natural rights, but when it came to speaking about his views, Wright knew his reputation would plummet. Douglass continues to be audacious when “[he] does not think it would be very honorable pn [his] part, to remain silent during the whole transaction.” It is evident that Douglass not only wants slaves to be free, but he does not want the slaves to pay for their independence because that would lead to the leaders of the government to increase the fee of becoming
Frederick Douglass’ speech on American Slavery compares greatly to Benjamin Banneker’s letter to Thomas Jefferson. Banneker called Jefferson out for saying a lot of things with no action behind his words. Douglass does the same thing to the North. He makes an argument that the north claims to be against slavery, claiming that the south should abolish it, but Douglass calls them out on the fact that they are verbalizing their distaste for slavery with no action behind it to change the circumstances. Douglass, like Banneker, shows his intellect by delivering a tactful argument that gains respect. Douglass spends a substantial amount of time calling the north out on their Christianity, pointing out that if they were Christians they would do something about slavery, and not rely on empty words.
The “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is an autobiography in which Frederick Douglass reflects on his life as a slave in America. He writes this book as a free slave, in the North, while slavery was still running its course before the Civil War. Through his effective use of rhetorical strategies, Frederick Douglass argues against the institution of slavery by appealing to pathos and ethos, introducing multiple anecdotes, using satirical irony, and explaining the persuasive effects of slavery and reasoning behind keeping slaves uneducated.
To start off, Douglass begins by explaining his purpose of his letter to Thomas Auld. To make things clear from the get to, Douglass states that he does not want to be uncivil with Thomas Auld, but to only convince the country to abolish slavery with Thomas Auld’s wrongdoings and other monstrous slave owners. Furthermore, Douglass brings up some of the unethical actions Thomas Auld did; such as, “robbing” or even “murdering” (101). Throughout the letter, Douglass writes short stories about his awful experiences as a former slave to truly demonstrate his feelings. For instance, Douglass describes Thomas Auld’s barking orders to Douglass, [with his trembling voice] that was not to be forgotten which put great fear into Douglass (102). In other words,
In “To My Old Master, Thomas Auld” By Frederick Douglass, Douglass wrote about the horrid things that happened to him, his family and other slaves. By writing the letter, Douglass became an activist with a strong voice. He spoke for himself, former slaves and slaves that were currently in chains. He used his strong voice to portray his feelings and experiences, he showed emotion through his words. By doing so he created empathy in the reader, something that many before him were not able to do. The white population was hard to get through but Douglass managed to bring them to understand by using his extraordinary literary skills and described his experience with vivid imagery. He used word play and imagery to draw attention to the horrible treatment of colored folk in the 1800’s.
He tells them that slavery is in contradiction of what the founding fathers valued and believed in, as well as what they fought for. Frederick says the founding fathers believed in freedom and equality. The same things they fought to get away from, are the same things white Americans were doing to African Americans in that present time. He says in his speech, “Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit earnestly sought redress,” (404). This quote is an example of how the founding fathers were feeling under England’s government, and how Frederick Douglass was relating it to how blacks were getting treated and how they felt throughout the United States in that present time. He wanted white Americans to recognize how they were portraying their nation. Another way he gets his audience to recognize what they were doing was wrong was by using their emotions to trigger shame and disappointment within themselves. Mr. Douglass shames them by comparing them to their founding fathers, who they look up to and celebrated. He says in the speech, “You live and must die, and you must do your own work…You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence,” (407), to shame his audience on not carrying on the principles and morals that the founding fathers worked so hard to gain. Another example of him guilting his audience is when he
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.
Noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in his self titled slave narrative addresses the indescribable sadness that the slaves were experiencing, which they portrayed through song. He intensely describes the emotions that he hears within the songs of the slaves. In the passage Douglass shows how the slaves believe that they feel, versus how they really feel, and he does this this by changing the tone throughout the passage. He uses these tones to make the reader fully feel the helplessness that the slaves feel and recognize the effects that slavery had on people.
Douglass got his passion to promote freedom for all slaves after he escaped from slavery and ultimately had an end goal to “abolish slavery in all its forms and aspects, and promote the moral and intellectual improvement of the coloured people and hasten the day of freedom to the three million of enslaved fellow countrymen”. He also wrote several autobiographies describing his experiences as a slave. One of the autobiographies in particular, ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave’ published in 1845 was a best-selling and was extremely influential for promoting the cause of abolition. The narrative shows a compelling argument to basic human rights thus making it extremely influential as the narrative clearly possesses features and linguistic skills, which for most white people, negated their common perception of black people being illiterate in the 19th century.
There has been a lot of controversy on whether colleges should be paying the paying their athletes. Brian Frederick, a board member of Sports Fan Coalition and an adjunct professor for Georgetown University’s Sport Industry Management Program, believes colleges have a broken system when it comes to athletes. Frederick’s contemptuous tone discredits sports fan, who believe college athletes already get paid enough with their education, by stating “If a student athlete is hurt or unsuccessful, the coaches and administrators suddenly discard the noble ideals of “education” and a player is left with nothing.” With the use of metaphors and similes, Frederick convinces sport fans to take action and make the calls in order to continue college athletics
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.
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.
In this case study, Vancity’s CEO, Vrooman, is faced with making the tough decision of deciding if her organization is in a position to reprice its line of credit offerings, in order to stay afloat and competitive, and at the same time, not loose the trust of its customers, who also happens to be the owners. Furthermore, the study showcases how Vancity’s innovative value to adapt to the changing needs in their community gives them a competitive advantage amongst other financial institution. This case is important as it explains tough decisions that top executives and organizations as a whole, are often faced with making, in order to stay competitive and profitable. It also discusses the financial impacts of the recession in the late 2000s on the Canadian economy, particularly the financial industry. This paper will begin with an introduction to this case, discussing the financial industry, and its impact on the Canadian economy, also to be accompanied with some background information on the case study. This will be followed with an analysis of the case study and I will then determine possible decisions that could be taken, and the merits/drawbacks of each decision. At this point, I will elaborate on what decision I think would be ideal and provide the best outcome of benefitting both the organization and its customers.
Admittedly, due to a number of significant environmental and attitudinal changes in today’s dynamic competitive environment, the Australian Public Service (APS) is facing a number of challenges. It is no exaggeration to say that change, whether in structure, process or procedure, all too often involves and impacts the human dimension of organizations. The Department of Human Services (DHS), one of the largest Australian Government department in the Commonwealth, has become increasingly relied on sophisticated information technologies; as a consequence, the traditional knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics of staff must be realigned with business processes that will be reformed to realize the full benefits. There has also been
Slavery has been a heavily encourages and practiced in the American society. From poor white farmers to supporter of abolishing slavery has seen it with their eyes. They all know that what they were doing to the African American slave was wrong. Slavery transformed the way society sees their life and liberty. In order to truly understand the impacts that slavery had on American society was to be a slave yourself. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and fighter for freedom wrote his book based on his experience of being a slave. He was an African American who taught himself how to read write and gain more knowledge to learn that he was a worthy living human. With his autobiography, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: An American slave written by himself, Douglass protected his experience by using different tones and styles to capture the reader's mind and show an example of what a slave had to face.
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.