Many history books and movies explain, in different ways, how slavery was like. These books and movies may be historically wrong because the authors did not actually experienced slavery first-hand. But the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was written by Douglass himself who had been a slave. Though being a former slave, Frederick uses a diverse amount of persuasive techniques. Logos, ethos, and pathos are just a few approaches he uses. Logos is an argument based on coherence and philosophy. Throughout the novel, Douglass tells many stories of how a slave was treated. “The frequency of this has had the effect to establish among the slaves the maxim, that a still tongue makes a wise head” (Douglass 24). All the slaves, within themselves, knew when they were asked a question he or she would be more fortunate to not say a word in response. It was evident the difference between freedmen and slaves. They were treated in a discrepant way. “I speak this advisedly,- that killing a slave, or any colored person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by …show more content…
This is the persuasion influenced by ethical inclination and authority. Being a slave always meant to obey the master at all times. “He was cruel enough to to inflict the severest punishment, artful enough to descend to the lowest trickery, and obdurate enough to be insensible to the voice of reproving conscience” (27). Douglass’s master at the time, Mr. Gore, had prerogative and authority to do as he pleases; he used this set fear in his slaves. Furthermore, the ethical side is likewise distinguished. The slave owners wanted to keep the slaves ignorant and away from their families. “My mother and I were separated when I was an infant- before I knew her as a mother. It is a common custom … to part children from their mothers at a very early age” (2). It was improper and crooked to keep a child away from their mother and keep them
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.
It also shows the sense of ownership slaves master’s felt that they had over them. Back then it was common for one man to own another man and to them it was the norm. In today’s society, most would look at owning another human as irrational. Douglass used logos to get the readers on his side. He wanted them to look at the master as a bad person; he wanted the readers to think logically.
What's one of the most important things we have as humans are rights. Both authors Thomas Jefferson and Frederick Douglass talk about our rights in different ways but use the same persuasive techniques to express out rights in their own point of views. Frederick Douglass talk about our rights in the first person point of view using logos, pathos, and ethos to express our rights. Thomas Jefferson talks about Our rights and a third person point of view also using logos, ethos, and pathos to express our rights.
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass’s use of pathos in their speeches work to make their argument stronger because they both want to see a change in America that would give a wide spread of equality and freedom for all. What can be more important than protecting your own people and trying to support them in a helpful, positive way? In Abraham's Lincoln 2nd Inaugural Address pathos was used in a smart way by commenting on a godly issued observation due to the fact that many individuals used to be more religious in that time period. In Lincoln's words, “Both read the same Bible, and pray the same God;...” Lincoln also writes, “as God gives us to see the right; let us strive on to finish the work we are in: to bind the nation's wounds;...”, here he includes God to make his writing stronger and
One of the best ways Douglass explains that slavery is wrong is through logos. He clearly shows that slavery is wrong, because it shows an unequal disposition of wealth. “Colonel Lloyd kept from three to four hundred slaves on his
The novel, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass himself, contains his views on his life. He escaped slavery to become a free man in the North, where Douglass became a well known abolitionist who wrote speeches for the anti-slavery campaign. His arguments are persuasive to readers as well as potent. Douglass uses the events in his life and a variety of strategies to build an effective argument against slavery. The strategies for his arguments are to influence readers with emotions, convince readers using logic and to prove that he is a credible, moral person. When writing these strategies into his Narrative, he
Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist who altered America's views of slavery through his writings and actions. Frederick's life as a slave had the greatest impact on his writings. Through his experience as a slave, he developed emotion and experience for him to become a successful abolitionist writer. He experienced harsh treatment and his hate for slavery and desire to be free caused him to write Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In his Narrative, he wrote the story of his miserable life as a slave and his fight to be free. His motivation behind the character (himself) was to make it through another day so that maybe one day he might be free. By speaking out, fighting as an abolitionist and finally becoming an author,
Especially, Douglass employs the use of deliberate and measured rationality and inquiry tone to convince his audience. Additionally, he utilizes logos in terms of historical facts to back up his plea for equality in American society, also he uses logic where he talks about the fact that slaves are human. He points how people know this fact, but they just choose to ignore it. Another way that he appeals to logos is talking about how some people don’t understand what the Fourth of July
Being a slave in the United States was not uncommon in the 19th century. There were many brutalities of being a slave including physical and spiritual abuse. Slaves were considered property and not as human beings. They were mistreated and kept illiterate. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is a autobiography written by Frederick Douglass himself that told of his experiences of being a slave in the United States. He expresses the brutality the slave owners and how he struggled with running away to become a free human being. The themes of his story include: the ignorance of slaves, the treatment of slaves as property, religion used as justification, and the victimization of female slaves.
comes in hand, enabling him to go into the closest of detail of his own experiences as a slave: “I had been at my new home but one week before Mr. Covey gave me a very severe whipping, cutting my back, causing the blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh as large as my little finger,” (Douglass 101.) Notice how all he does is detail the incident. He doesn’t speak of how this made him feel or what he wanted to do in response. This neutrality removes him from the picture and lets the sequence of events speak as loudly as they do for themselves.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass perfectly depicts the dreadful experience of living in slavery. From being unsure of the day he was born, to his first beating from a master, to the brutal and exhausting work, and to the joyous day he was freed. Besides describing his experience as a slave, he describes the toll slavery had on the masters and families of slaves. Frederick Douglass also includes his view of education in relation to freedom. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a good excerpt from The Classic Slave Narratives that can be considered a good historical resource due to the historical content it provides about slavery.
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.
Douglass gives detailed anecdotes of his and others experience with the institution of slavery to reveal the hidden horrors. He includes personal accounts he received while under the control of multiple different masters. He analyzes the story of his wife’s cousin’s death to provide a symbol of outrage due to the unfairness of the murderer’s freedom. He states, “The offence for which this girl was thus murdered was this: She had been set that night to mind Mrs. Hicks’s baby, and during the night she fell asleep, and the baby cried.” This anecdote, among many others, is helpful in persuading the reader to understand the severity of rule slaveholders hold above their slaves. This strategy displays the idea that slaves were seen as property and could be discarded easily.
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 born in Maryland in 1818 as a slave to a maritime captain, Captain Anthony. After decades of enslavement, Frederick Douglass escaped to the North and became one of the prominent members and drivers of the abolitionist movement. In an effort to provide an eye-opening account of the harsh treatment of slaves, Douglass wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In his autobiography, Frederick Douglass detailed his life beginning from his meager early years through his escape to the North. In writing his autobiography, Douglass utilized a variety of techniques including the use of the three rhetorical strategies: Ethos, Pathos and Logos to create a powerful and influential argument against the institution of