Frederick Douglass Rebunk The Myth Of Slavery

Rhetorical Analysis for ‘The Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass’ Fredrick Douglass’s influential experiences recorded in ‘The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass’, reveals his woeful hardships as a slave, which he overcomes with his unfaltering desire to become an educated and ultimately free man. He apprises readers of the monstrous realities of slavery whilst providing a silver lining of hope to light the path to freedom. Throughout the entirety of the book, FD’s riveting diction accentuates his forthright opinions and detestation toward the vicious, pitiless, and blood-thirsty slaveholders with words such as “wicked”, “horrid” and “cowardly”. To slaveholders, education was a threat; to FD it was a sanctuary.

Throughout Frederick Douglass’s Narrative, he recalls the inhumane acts that were thrusted upon him as a slave, but overcame the abuse of the common practice. Specifically, Douglass since childhood worked in a plantation as a slave, but from him learning to read and write, he escapes and teaches the people of the North the hardships of slavery, where he faced deprivation through exploitation, discovered there were more opportunities for slaves as he approaches the North, and gains power to change of his life due to his knowledge. For instance, the slaves were put into lower social positions than their masters through social manipulation, in ways of isolation and deprivation, so they would not leave the plantations. To illustrate, in the plantations many of “the white

After writing Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, people would slowly get an idea of the harsh and shameful lives that slaves lived. This would be the start to a life-long protest of natural rights and a call to America asking them to live up to their Declaration of Independence and show the world that the slave system dehumanizes people. “I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is

If a slave could learn how to read or write, they could create a plan to escape. The slaveholders only traded their slaves when it benefitted them, the slaves did not have a say so. The only way they were disloyal was when they tried to escape. When it came to holidays, the slaveholders did not tell them that they should have the time off, being that it was a holiday. They all gathered around and joked about their ignorance towards it. Douglass seemed to see through all of the slaveholder’s doings. He was determined to get away

Frederick Douglass, a slave of the deep south makes his escape into the free north, but even after his escape he can “trust no man”. No matter the color of one’s skin either black or white, Douglass has a deep sense of mistrust in any man, engraved into his person by the years of “the wretchedness of slavery”. Douglass’ diction in his narrative shows how slavery can shape a man into a self conscious and paranoid person. Throughout his life as a slave, Douglass was constantly exposed to conditions in which the only way to survive was to fight for his life. Like the sisters who were raised by wolves -Amala and Kamala- Douglass is not adapted to society and does not trust anyone but himself.

It was the slave owners job to make slaves feel unwanted, and worthless. Douglass soon realized that learning how to read and write would guide him from ignorance and darkness to knowledge furthermore brilliance. Through expanding his mind and attaining a full realization of his capabilities, he realized he was not meant to be a slave and endeavored to free himself from bondage. Suddenly became fit to be a knowledgeable slave; however, there was some down

The Life of Frederick Douglass During the 1800’s the lives of slaves were not particularly easy. Long, hard days called for many tough times for slaves. Alike many slaves, Frederick Douglass lived a life filled with many hardships, some of which made him into a better man. In Douglass’s book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass life was filled with poor treatment and cruel masters, but with perseverance and determination, Douglass conquered adversity and became an aspiring leader.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a very powerful and important piece of work when it comes to understanding the dehumanization and harsh treatment of the slaves in Pre-Civil War United States. Frederick Douglass uses crucial detail in his narrative to make the reader understand just how badly the slaves were truly treated and how profoundly unequal slaves were from everyone else during this time. Douglass uses many rhetorical strategies throughout his narrative in order to really shape how the readers are going to interpret the narrative, and to allow the reader to develop an understanding of his major theme of dehumanization. He uses detailed descriptions of brutal beatings, repeatedly mentions the contrast between the white citizens and black

Frederick Douglass was a slave that was treated horribly, and witnessed first-hand what horrible treatment slaves got from their white masters. He tells of many stories in which African-American slaves were beaten or shot to death for the tiniest things. Douglass wrote an autobiography, not only to tell others of the miserable treatment, but to show that slaves were treated immorally. Because Frederick Douglass’ purpose was to show the evils of slavery and how it affected a wide spectrum of people, he showed that young slaves were mistreated as well as old slaves and that females were subject to abuse just like the males. Frederick Douglass was born and raised a slave, which means that he had personal experience in what slaves went through because he went through almost the same troubles.

Despite the risk, the slaves value their education so highly that they attend Douglass’s school. Douglass’s first year with Freeland passes smoothly. Douglass remembers Freeland as the best master he ever had. Douglass also attributes the comfort of the year to his solidarity with the other slaves. Douglass recalls that

The white man’s happiness cannot be purchased by the black man’s misery.” Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, or better known as Frederick Douglass, was an African-American who supported the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century. Slave-born of an unknown father, Frederick Douglass taught himself how to write and read- even though it was a crime for black people to learn- and became one of the most eloquent orator, and writer during the nineteenth century. With his great passion of wanting to demolish slavery, he gained thousands and thousands of black people, and even white people, who supported him in the abolition of slavery. His antislavery not only reached the United States, but even Great Britain.

A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master—to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world.’” (pg. 1196) Douglass had to learn and teach himself, he would also try to get others to teach him as often as

In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.

Frederick Douglass was one of the only few slaves to be able to read and write and used this ability to free himself. To gain support against slavery, many abolitionists in the 19th century would detail the brutality of slavery as an institution, and explain the helplessness and dejected condition of black slaves under this cruelty. However, I don’t believe Douglass would agree with their statement that black slaves were helpless and dejected. Slaves were physically strong, capable of hope and ambition, and Douglass showed that there are other ways to learn than through a proper education since they did not have one. Under the cruelty of slavery in U.S. history, most slaves were not helpless or dejected and were fully capable of a resistance to slavery.

In the 1830’s an American slave Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery. Douglass soon after embarked on a mission to end slavery. The best way to end slavery were to “shine a light” on slavery and to tell a story to people that did not know. Northerners who read “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” were either against slavery or supportive of slavery. Douglass argues that slavery corrupted slave owners, and slavery was terrible for slaves.