Fredrick Douglass Argumentative Essay

The excerpt, “Learning to Read” from Fredrick Douglass’ autobiography portrays the struggle and hardship a slave have been going through at the time. A former slave, Douglass, wrote the autobiography in 1845 during the time of the abolition movement and women’s suffrage. Douglass writes about himself as a slave when he was younger and trying to be educated like the white children. He proposes his main goal of slavery to be abolished by using various writing techniques. Douglass uses the rhetorical triangle in order to strengthen his argument that slavery is wrong. By using an ethical approach, logical appeal and emotional appeal, Douglass effectively uses the rhetorical tactics in the form of personal experiences,

Douglass uses vivid imagery to depict the gruesome and ungodly nature of slavery. For example, in chapter six, Douglass describes the death of his grandmother “…She stands-she sits-she staggers-she falls-she groans-she dies-and there are none of her children or grandchildren present, to wipe from her wrinkled brow the cold sweat of death…” (59) This quote helps the reader imagine the grandmothers death and how helpless she felt. The fact that the slaveholders made it impossible for her children to be there when she died, contributes to the inhumane image Douglass has already been painting throughout the

Instead of creating a tone that centers on the lives of slaves around him, Douglass grabs the reader’s attention by shifting the tone to more personal accounts.

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

Within Douglass’s Narrative as a child one of the first adults to impact your life, his mother, passes. The way he illustrates his emotion is seen through his syntax, his sentences explaining how he felt were almost cold, very short and choppy as if he was speaking about a stranger. “The ties that ordinarily bind children to their homes did not exist in my case. I felt no sadness at the thought of leaving. I was not leaving any loved one.” (Douglass 28). Douglass develops an almost nonchalance in his writing which builds up to the emotional appeal as he relocates into a new community, the first true community Douglass is able to experience is within slavery. However, Douglass sets a shift as his tone shifts from cold and nonchalant to cheery and wholehearted as he is integrated into a new society. The emotions that Douglass expresses through his writing indicate his emotions towards the relationship he and his communities share; On the Colonels farm he was cold and distance and as he relocates to Baltimore he becomes more sincere, joyful and open to emotion likely due to the fact that Baltimore was the start of his literacy and the end of his mental suppression. Contradictorily, those in opposition of the ideal that person is a product of their community will claim that Douglass’s claims in his narrative only speak for the enslaved African American community however within the narrative Douglass speaks on the norms of society and suppression of women within

In The Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, written by himself the author asserts that the way to enslave someone is to keep them from learning at all. Douglass supports his claim by, first, when Frederick was small he was never able to tell his age or the date, and secondly, they were never allowed to be taught how to read that was something always hidden from him as a young child. The author’s purpose is to inform the reader that as a slave there were so many things they were not allowed to have that we may take for granted, in order to make it very clear that we should not take our education and opportunities for granted. Based on The Life Of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, Douglass is writing for the white people who believed that slavery was right, he wanted to make it very clear that the slaves and Douglass had nothing handed to them.

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

         When Douglas was born into slavery, grew up in the South engaged in heavy slave labor, torture, several times nearly lost his life. However, his strong will in difficult circumstances, assiduous self-culture struggle. Slaveholders see good discipline, he handed him over to a special tame slaves and whites - Covey discipline. Douglas decided to revolt after being repeatedly beaten severely beaten discipline who scared the other no longer afraid to fight him.

Throughout the story Frederick tells us about his childhood, the things that he has seen and things that he knows that the slaveholders have done. He has seen rape, brutality, and neglect before the age of 5. Imagine what that would do to a person. Douglas is portrayed as a person that has been wronged because he was sold to another person before he really got to know his mother. Because of the things he saw he had no idea the word around him was different, so he thought slavery was everywhere. Once he could read he noticed it wasn’t the same everywhere and so he set out to change the

Throughout the narration, Douglass has tried to maintain the flow using the techniques of realism and irony in order to present his themes. The reader can observe his helplessness for misery of the slaves from the quoted incidents. For example in the very first chapter, Douglass recalls the incident of his Aunt Hester who is

On July 5th 1852, Frederick Douglass, one of history’s outstanding public speakers, carried out a very compelling speech at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York. Within that moment of time where the freedom of Americans was being praised and celebrated, he gathered the nation to clear up the tension among slavery and the establishment of the country’s goals. Frederick Douglass’s speech mentions the development of the young nation, the Revolution, and his own life experience. While speaking, his main subject was seen to be American slavery. The “Fourth of July Oration” was a commendable model of Frederick Douglass’s affection and engagement towards the freedom of individuals. Frederick Douglass’s speech left an impact on his audience

For Douglass, the most memorable and emotion-provoking incident was the treatment of his grandmother. When she became too old to work, she, after a lifetime of faithful service to the family, was left helpless and alone in a shack in the woods to fend for herself. “They took her to the woods, built her a little hut, put up a little mud-chimney, and then made her welcome to the privilege of supporting herself in perfect loneliness; thus virtually turning her out to die!” (Douglass 51) Throughout his narrative, Douglass applied he rhetorical strategy of Pathos repeatedly and to great effect to promote and validate his view that slavery is morally wrong.

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.

The book Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas an American slave, is showing a highway map, displaying the road to how the slavery went to freedom. Douglas at the opening of the book was a slave in both his body and mind. Then at the end good things happened to him, he gets legal freedom and frees his mind. The events in the book are good points in Frederick’s life, in the book it explains how he get there, and what he had to do and learn along the road.

Throughout this unit, my classmates have weighed in on what they believe the most important aspect of the Frederick Douglass narrative is, whether it’s his upbring or his writing skills. I’ve decided that although all these points brought up are important, the most important aspect of Frederick Douglass is his maturing as both a slave and a man. When we’re first introduced to Douglass, he opens with a tone of anger and resentment. He states, “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it...it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.” He continues with, “A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness even during my childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.” This tone of resentment carries through the rest of the novel, but what I believe changes this tone is how Douglass goes from being helpless and not doing anything about his situation, to being proactive and actively looking to fix his state as a slave. The same can be seen in the characteristics of the film and excerpt of 12 Years a Slave.