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Frederick douglass essays and research papers
Frederick douglass essays and research papers
A short summary of biographical profile of frederick douglass
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Many African-Americans went through the tragic hardships of slavery, but not many were able to live through to tell their stories. In the book, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by himself, the concept of defeating slavery is applied. Douglass was a slave who had the opportunity to educate himself and later free himself from the mistreatment. He was able to then tell his story of what he had been through to hopefully promote change. Douglass writes this narrative to not only make a difference, but to inform the readers of the corruption slavery can cause, by using rhetorical appeals such as ethos, logos, and pathos. Douglass uses ethos in the narrative to inform the audience of all the wrong that slavery was. He starts off the narrative by giving an example of …show more content…
the neglect that dealt with. On page 19, chapter 1, Douglass says, "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen authentic record containing it." When Douglass tells the readers this he establishes that he can be trusted because of his actual personal experience of slavery. Douglass also uses incredible diction when he compares himself to white children. He says, “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege." This lends itself to credibility because Douglass was an under-privileged human being and just because he was an African American slave it made him less of a person. Being a slave makes him a very credible author on this topic. He needs the credibility so that readers will feel the sympathy he displays throughout the novel. Douglass uses logos in many ways to make the story more logical and to give people a reason to want to promote change. One example would be when Douglass tells anyone who asks him about his master, he would say that his master was good to him. He says, “I have been frequently asked, when a slave, if I had a kind master, and do not remember ever to have given a negative answer; nor did I, in pursuing this course, consider myself as uttering what was absolutely false" (Douglass 35). This is ethical because if he did happen to tell the wrong person that his master was bad to him, he could be severely hurt or in serious trouble with his master. Douglass also uses antithesis on page 68 when he talks about how Captain Auld thought that the city had ruined him. Douglass says, “It had almost ruined me for every good purpose, and fitted me for everything which was bad." This is logical because if he hadn't gone to the city plantation he would not have been able to achieve the goals that he did, such as escaping slavery and teaching himself how to read. The slaveholders though this was a bad thing, but it was actually a good thing overall. Lastly pathos appears most in this narrative to pull on the audience's heart strings for the purpose of making them feel sympathy and want to do something about the gruesome acts of slavery.
The strong emotional appeals that he uses really do the job of making the readers feel a resentment towards slavery and towards the corrupt slaveholders. One example of pathos is used when Colonel Lloyd beats Aunt Hester, “He then said to her, ‘Now, you d-d b-h, I'll learn you to disobey my orders!' And after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cow skin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor" (Douglass 24). This really makes the audience's emotions fluster. This tragic seen that Douglass depicts is hard to not feel even the least bit of sympathy for Aunt Hester and for Douglass. The slaves were heinously neglected and if they weren't being beaten they were having to witness a friend or family member being deliberately whipped, choked, killed. These feelings are important because it makes the reader want to change these things. It also helps Douglass to inform them of the neglect that
occurred. Through ethos, logos, and pathos, Douglass conveys his purpose of informing readers of the mistreatment and to make a change in the world of slavery. He wrote his narrative to hopefully get abolitionists to step up towards making that difference. He was one slave who made it through himself, and taught himself the things that he knew. In today's society, Douglass gives readers hope. He allows them to realize that anything is possible and to never give up no matter how difficult things can get.
The hopeful and then helpless tones in Douglass' passage reflect his inner turmoil throughout the process of his escape from the wretched south. At first, Frederick Douglass feels the utter feeling of happiness covering every inch of his body and soul. However, he soon finds out that the rosy path has thorns that dug into his skin as freedom was dangled in front of his face through a tunnel of complete darkness.
Frederick Douglass, an African American social reformer who escaped from slavery, in his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself,” denotes the perilous life of a slave in the South. Through syntax, Douglass is able to persuade his readers to support the abolitionist movement as his writing transitions from shifting sentence lengths to parallel structure and finally to varying uses of punctuation. Douglass begins his memoir with a combination of long and short sentences that serve to effectively depict life his life as a slave. This depiction is significant because it illustrates the treatment of slaves in the south allows his audience to despise the horrors of slavery. In addition, this
In sum, all of these key arguments exist in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” because of the institution of slavery and its resulting lack of freedom that was used to defend it. This text’s arguments could all be gathered together under the common element of inequality and how it affected the practical, social, and even spiritual lives of the slaves.
In, “The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”, readers get a first person perspective on slavery in the South before the Civil War. The author, Frederick Douglass, taught himself how to read and write, and was able to share his story to show the evils of slavery, not only in regard to the slaves, but with regard to masters, as well. Throughout Douglass’ autobiography, he shares his disgust with how slavery would corrupt people and change their whole entire persona. He uses ethos, logos, and pathos to help establish his credibility, and enlighten his readers about what changes needed to be made.
In the “Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas” Frederick Douglas discuss his life of being born a slave to him escaping to the North for freedom. Since slavery wasn’t abolished until 1865 in the U.S. and Douglas didn’t publish his book until 1845, he wanted to show people the truth behind slavery and hopefully people would understand that slavery is not something that needs to be around no longer. Although, Douglas explains his life story and he also points out a few harsh moments other slaves have to go through as well. Therefore, the overall argument is slavery being abolish and how Douglas plans his escape.
America in the mid to early nineteenth century saw the torture of many African Americans in slavery. Plantation owners did not care whether they were young or old, girl or boy, to them all slaves were there to work. One slave in particular, Frederick Douglass, documented his journey through slavery in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Through the use of various rhetorical devices and strategies, Douglass conveys the dehumanizing and corrupting effect of slavery, in order to show the overall need for American abolition. His use of devices such as parallelism, asyndeton, simile, antithesis, juxtaposition and use of irony, not only establish ethos but also show the negative effects of slavery on slaves, masters and
After reading Frederick Douglass’s narrative of slavery, I couldn’t help but stop and try to gather my thoughts in any way possible. It was not the first time I had read the narrative, but this time around Douglass’s words hit me much harder. Perhaps, it was that I read the narrative in a more critical lens, or possibly it was just that I am older and more mature now from the last time I read it, but whatever the reason, I can confidently say reading the narrative has changed my heart and opened my eyes in many ways. I have always been aware of the injustices that slavery encompassed and of course like many other people, I have been taught about slavery in a historical narrative my entire life. But, Frederick Douglass’s narrative does more than just provide a historical perspective in seeing the injustices in slavery. His narrative asks the reader to look directly into the eyes of actual slaves and realize their very heart beat and existence as humans. Douglass humanizes the people of whom the terrible acts we acted upon that we learn about as early as elementary school. It is because of this that I decided to write this poem. Reading the narrative made me really think about Douglass’s journey and the story he tells on his road to freedom. I felt as if he was really speaking to me and, and in turn I wanted to give Douglass a voice in my own writing.
The tone established in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is unusual in that from the beginning to the end the focus has been shifted. In the beginning of the narrative Douglass seems to fulfill every stereotypical slavery theme. He is a young black slave who at first cannot read and is very naïve in understanding his situation. As a child put into slavery Douglass does not have the knowledge to know about his surroundings and the world outside of slavery. In Douglass’ narrative the tone is first set as that of an observer, however finishing with his own personal accounts.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
The reader is first introduced to the idea of Douglass’s formation of identity outside the constraints of slavery before he or she even begins reading the narrative. By viewing the title page and reading the words “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, written by himself” the reader sees the advancement Douglass made from a dependent slave to an independent author (Stone 134). As a slave, he was forbidden a voice with which he might speak out against slavery. Furthermore, the traditional roles of slavery would have had him uneducated—unable to read and incapable of writing. However, by examining the full meaning of the title page, the reader is introduced to Douglass’s refusal to adhere to the slave role of uneducated and voiceless. Thus, even before reading the work, the reader knows that Douglass will show “how a slave was made a man” through “speaking out—the symbolic act of self-definition” (Stone 135).
...hen reading Frederick Douglass?s Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass it is important to take in to account the time period in which it was written, who the author was and their background, and the purpose that the work was written for. Douglass was a slave and an abolitionist who wrote about his life for two reasons, to give the facts and to convince people that slavery was wrong. The way he wrote both parts are intertwined so that they compliment and support each other it exist as a work of abolitionist propaganda and as an historical source.
In paragraph 7 Douglass is starting to hate his life, which makes him eager to hear people talk about slavery. “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead…” (Douglass, 103) “While in this state of mind, I was eager to hear any one speak of slavery.” (Douglass, 103)
Fredrick Douglass describes his life on the plantation as being very difficult and troubling. He discusses situations in which slaves were treated unjustly. For instance, slaves would be punished if they were to say anything except positive remarks about their masters, even if they were obviously mistreating their slaves. Douglass had to learn when it was best for him to just stay silent (Douglass 27). This creates an enraged emotion in the reader because slaves should not have been denied the right to speak their mind just because it does not coincide with how their masters wanted them to feel. Douglass lets the reader understand that his starting life was not easy for him, and by describing it in the initial chapters of the book instead of
Throughout the entirety of the book, Douglass presents himself as a neutral figure who can see both the negative and positive side of any issue, even slavery. He presents a rational account of why slavery exists and does so without attempting to discuss the morality of the topic at hand. Despite spending a lot of time discussing the cruel masters and supervisors he encountered in life , his anger is not towards those who support slavery, but the institution of slavery as a whole.“Nature has done almost nothing to prepare me...
...a lot of atrocities at the hands of their owners, who were successful in using ignorance as a tool of slavery, besides treating them as personal property. However, the slaves struggled to gain education on their own, ultimately knowing their rights and questioning some of the heinous acts. Slave owners ensured that slaves worked tirelessly so that they do not get time to idle around and gather in groups that would shake the administration. The narrative, through highlighting the experiences of Douglass himself, painted a true picture of the type of life slaves were undergoing under the surveillance of their slave masters in the United States, a picture that the slaveholders did not want to be brought to the limelight.