Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

In “From Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,” Frederick Douglass reveals his life as a slave in America during the 18th century. Douglass was born into slavery in 1817, but unlike many slaves back then Douglass learned how to read and write. It was not easy for him to learn to read and write since it was illegal to show a black man how to do so during that period. He was introduced to reading and writing by one of his master’s wives, Mrs. Hugh Auld, but shortly that came to end and Douglass had to find another way of learning. Nevertheless, Douglass went on determined to learn and became friends with the poor white kids so they could teach him for an exchange of bread. Douglass eventually went on to become a free man in 1847, and published

Throughout “From Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,” Douglass uses the rhetorical devices of pathos and ethos to persuade the audience into seeing slavery as inhumane.
Douglass believed that by showing people what slavery was really like, they would understand why it needed to be abolished. Therefore, Douglass uses pathos to impact you emotionally through the cruelties behind slavery. Douglass builds his pathos when he states “ [Master Andrew] took my little brother by the throat, threw him on the ground, and with the heel of his boot stamped upon his head till the blood gushed from his nose and ears…., and said that was the way he meant to serve me one of these days (337)[.]” When reading this statement I automatically became