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Summary Of To My Old Master Thomas Auld By Frederick Douglass

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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. In the 1800’s it was not common for former slaves to speak up about their former masters, but Douglass broke the image of a silent slave. When he wrote that letter he did not hold anything back, he used words that would perfectly convey his feelings. As said by Douglass, “Just ten years ago this beautiful September morning, yon bright sun beheld me a slave—a poor degraded chattel—trembling at the sound of your voice, lamenting that I was a man, and wishing myself a brute” (Douglass 2). In this portion of Douglass’ letter he is using powerful word play to bring emotion to the readers. Words like poor, degraded and trembling have a negative connotation to them and bring a sense of
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