Rhetorical Logos In Frederick Douglass

For hundreds of years, slaves in America were separated from their families to be sold off like livestock to their slave owners, then forced to work and live in unimaginable conditions, and viciously beaten for something as little as a task not fully being met. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by the self-taught, abolitionist himself, Douglass shares some light on the inhumane treatment and hardships slaves were forced to overcome in his journey to free himself both mentally and physically from slavery. Douglass appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos in order to truly open his reader's eyes to the horrors of slavery, conveying his message that slavery must be abolished.

My first example of diction that Douglass uses is “…in all its glaring odiousness, that slaveholders have ordained, and by law established, that the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well…” (2) Here Douglass is describing how slaveholders have sex with the female slaves and abandon the children born from it. He uses words such as odiousness, lust, and wicked desires to show how the slaveholders use and abuse the slaves in their employment for their own gratification. By using the aforementioned words, Douglass try’s to convey to his target audience the audacity of these men who abandon

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

For a man that was brought up not knowing his birthday, beaten for wanting to learn, and tortured for not perfectly completing the task asked by his master, he; Frederick Douglass had the ability to write an articulate novel explaining in detail, the hardships of being a slave. In the novel, it is prevalent that Douglass came from nothing and reinvented himself into an affluent abolitionist and writer. Rhetorical devices furthered Douglass’s argument by making it known that the way he writes and speaks has no effect on the torture and violence he endured. Also the rhetorical devices added emphasis that the subject of slavery matters.

Frederick Douglass, a former slave, is a well known figure for self teaching himself the English language and addressing the nation of its holiday for freedom. He had a goal, which was to explain what the 4th of July meant to a black slave. How he convinced his crowd was through some powerful language and rhetorical questions. Though he was talking to a sympathetic crowd, he really wanted to prove how different his opinion is of this “great” holiday compared to a white American.

Through the use of various anecdotes, Frederick Douglass illustrates the brutality suffered by the slave; the reader reacts emotionally to these incidents. For instance when Douglass talks about how the slaves are beaten and mistreated he discusses a slave who was shot since he refused to obey his master: ”and in an instant poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out of sight”(39). In this quote Douglass shows how mistreated the slaves were and makes the reader feel sad that a slave would be shot before given another chance to listen to his master. Also he makes us feel anger at the master that after an instant of disobeying the master's a slave would be killed and the body would be left to just sink down into the water. Similarly,

Frederick Douglass’s Argument Against Slavery: Pathos and Logos Frederick Douglass was an extraordinary man who changed our world forever and helped start the revolution against slavery. In Douglass’s book he makes a strong argument against slavery using the reader’s emotions and logics. Douglass succeeds in doing this by using examples of religion, death, and the wrongdoing of slave owners. Frederick Douglass uses people's’ logics and what is rational throughout the book to convince people that slavery is wrong. Douglass discusses religion to argue his opinion throughout the book.

In the male narrative by Frederick Douglass he is persuading the reader by using pathos. Douglass describes his beating and how helpless he left when he was he was a slave. He describes how every kick could be felt and every drop of blood could be heard. He is worked until his breaking point and then was beat for stopping. The master wouldn’t tolerate stopping even if it was for the good of Douglass’s health. The female narrative by Harriet Jacobs represents having to leave behind her children to set them free. Jacobs has abandon her eight and five year old children to eventually save them. Females can never truly be free because they have to take care of their family and be selfless, but males can put themself first with no consequences.

He uses this rhetorical appeal to make his point come across more clearly when describing and discussing slavery. He also uses logos to explain what the slaves could do and what they were forbidden to do, "It was committed in the presence of slaves, and of course they could neither institute a suit, nor testify against him; and thus the guilty perpetrator of one of the bloodiest and most foul murders goes unwhipped of justice, " (Douglass 36). Just from reading this one quote you can easily see that slaves didn't have much say in anything when it came to the being before the masters. Any reader that happened to be educated about slavery could tell how unfair the dominant white American species were to the slaves. During this time, the word sympathy would never apply to the enslaved Americans all due to their

Throughout American history, mankind has made arguments about race, whether its about who had it worse or who paved the way for equality. This situation comes into play when it comes to the story of escaped slave, Frederick Douglas. Frederick was a wide known and well traveled abolitionist. Many people in the north became abolitionists, as well as some white southerners along with the slaves and freed POC. Many have credited slavery being abolished to the white abolitionists rather than the strong POC and slaves that helped fight for abolition. Frederick Douglas was different from the white abolitionists in a way that, if a reader were to look at a white abolitionist’s reason for abolishing slavery it would all be because they found it cruel,

The book "Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass" was written by Frederick Douglass. It starts off with Douglass' background information along with his experiences as a slave, It later introduces the reality of slavery. Douglass discusses in the book that the only way slaves could have their freedom is by having education. Thus, slaveholders kept the slaves as ignorant on purpose so that they could not find the path to freedom. Therefore, the author uses rhetorical devices such as Imagery, figurative language and ethos to convey his attitude about the American Promise and the American individual.

In chapter 3 of Douglass book, Douglass used the rhetorical device imagery to reveal and explain the cruel actions and events that took place on plantation during slavery. For example, Douglass asserted, “When he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood”. With that, Douglass used this to show how the “American Promise” and “American Individual” was unjust. Although, masters were Christian they still did devilish things upon slaves and whites not allowing slaves of their freedom. In conclusion, this connect back to American Individual and American Promise because using imagery it gave

In the book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass reveals his life as a slave and the valuable lessons he learned from his experience. Douglass wants the truth about slavery to be revealed and he wants to get rid of the lies that portray slavery as beneficial. Douglass exposes the reality of slavery by criticizing the “romantic image” of slavery, showing the intellectual capabilities slaves had, and revealing the reasons why slaves were disloyal to each other. Douglass criticizes the southern, romantic image of slavery by exposing the harsh treatment and sadness that slaves endured. It was southerners who thought slavery as beneficial, because it benefited themselves and white society.

Frederick Douglass's narrative is an interesting and educative 1845 memoir of a former slave and orator Fredrick Douglas. The narrative explains the events of the author’s life as a slave since childhood until he escapes from the bondage of slavery. The story is divided into eleven chapters, each explaining important events in the life of Fredrick and his fellow slaves. Throughout the narrative, the orator explains various episodes of sadness and happiness in the lives of slaves who are always at the mercy of their slave. The author also expresses the hypocrisy White people who enslaved people while preaching the saving power of Jesus Christ. In the end, the author argues for abolition, and explains his major role in advocating for the abolition

The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass’ is an autobiography of Frederick Douglass, the slave who escaped and became one of renowned social reformers of his time. The book is a collection of actual experiences of the author during his time in slavery and experiences of fellow slaves. He describes brilliantly the oppressive conditions into which he was born, lived, as well as his struggles and triumphs. The author meant to make the reader comprehend life of the African Americans in slavery before the ending of slavery. He also meant to highlight the misuse of religion and to use it to control other people whom they deem inferior.