Frederick Douglass Moral Development

In conclusion, Fredrick Douglass intended to show the horrors of slavery. He wanted to share his story so that he could change their views on slavery. Douglass writes in a straightforward, blunt manner to convey his point effectively to the reader. He does this so the readers won’t see him as an unintelligent, piece of property instead they’ll see him as a reliable and smart human being.

Throughout the narrative Douglass uses rhetorical imagery in order to provide readers with an insight to the true horrors of slavery. In chapter one of the narrative, Douglass speaks of the time when he would witness his aunt being tortured and beat by the master. He writes about seeing her “covered in blood” with “a whip upon her naked back”. Douglass uses and explains this experience in detail in order to paint a picture in the readers’ head and give them a firsthand experience to the harsh life of a slave. By using blood as an example of what he sensed, he is bringing in a word that is emotionally tied.

Frederick Douglass believes America has been altered by a mass hysteria, slavery, thus affecting its ideals, values, culture, practices, or myths. At the time, no one knew better when it came to slavery. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass depicts certain instances where he exploits the American perspective of slavery rather than challenging it. To begin with, Frederick Douglass intertwines witnessing graphic events with his personal experiences to represent how slave owners exploited African American female slaves.

The auto-biography “An American Slave” of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is about the life of a life of a slave who eventually became free due to his advantage of education. Douglass discussed his experience of being born into slavery and escaping and becoming the symbol of strength and hero he is known as today. He, in detail, explains how contradicting the Constitution and the actual society in that time period were to each other. Douglass’ purpose of writing this novel was to not only tell his story but to also express his attitudes towards the “American Promise” and the “American Individual”. In the novel Douglass used similes, metaphors and imagery to convey his personal attitudes about the American Promise and the American Individual

The Narrative of Frederick Douglass is a very great perspective for people of today to understand what it was like to be a slave in the 1800’s. It tells the story of the slave Frederick Douglass and how he began as an uneducated slave and was moved around from many different types of owners, cruel or nice, and how his and other slaves presences changed the owners, and also how he educated himself and realized that he shouldn’t be treated so poorly It was at the point later in the book that I realized how some slaves might have felt during slavery in the 1800’s. When Douglass is sent away to Mr.Covey he is treated pretty badly but eventually he stands up to Mr.Covey and demands that he stopped being treated like an animal.

In Frederick Douglass’s book, he writes accounts of his time in slavery and beyond. Throughout the book, Douglass writes about not only the physical hardships slaves endured, but the mental and emotional hardships as well. In Chapter X, Douglass describes a battle he had with a temporary slave owner named Mr. Covey. After the fight concludes, Douglass writes, “This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.

On July 5th 1852 Fredrick Douglass gave a speech to the anti-slavery society to show that all men and woman are equal no matter what. Douglass uses ethos, pathos, and logos in his speech to make look reasonable. Douglass demonstrates ethos by speaking in first person that of which he had experience slavery: "I was born amid such sights and scenes"(Douglass 4). When Douglass spoke these words to the society, they knew of his personal knowledge and was able to depend on him has a reliable source of information. The anti-slavery society listening to his every word, considering that Douglass spoke with integrity, knowledge and emotions.

In some cases, slaves feared the separation from their families, more than death itself. Being separated from your family, could happen in an instant, with no warning, and for no reason. Douglass explains this by saying “He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment's warning, he was snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than death.” (3.5), he is telling the reader that being separated from your family is the most tragic thing that could happen to anyone in life. But, Douglass was a little different, because once his mother died; he did not care for leaving.

“Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities” (Douglass, 252).

Throughout the “Narrative of Fredrick Douglass”, Douglass develops an image between true and false Christianity. Douglass elaborates his point in the opening appendix, calling the former “the Christianity of Christ” and the latter “the Christianity of this land.” Douglass describes the ordeal that slaveholders’ Christianity is not a given evidence of natural goodness, but an artificial state of self-righteous brutality. To tackle this distinction, Douglass states a basic contradiction between the charitable, peaceful beliefs of Christianity and the violence from the immoral actions of slaveholders. The character that is described as a good example for this theme is Thomas Auld.

Through Frederick Douglass’ autobiography you are able to see slavery in the 1800’s through a slave's point of view. When writing out his autobiography Douglass has the intentional goal to open people's eyes to slavery and its effects. Douglass wanted to show what the slave industry consisted of and how he managed to break free from the deadly cycle. I personally believe that through Douglass’ writing he was able to obtain his goal of enlightening his readers on slavery. Through Douglass’ writing we see how he witnessed of the hardening of hearts of his slave owners.