Rhetorical Analysis Of How To Read And Write

“Letter to My Master, Thomas Auld” explores Frederick Douglass’ view of slavery and Thomas Auld, his former slave master, in a smart and emotionally charged letter originally written in 1848 and published in the abolitionist newspaper North Star. Throughout the letter, Douglass uses his own experience as a slave to drive his views, often using sarcasm and a dark recognition of his trials to drive his own view of slavery; that slavery should be abolished and that it is inhumane and cruel. Douglass’ decision to publish this paper in the North Star allowed him to bring to light his experiences to push other readers of the newspaper towards an abolitionist stand point by bringing his first-hand accounts of slavery forward and explaining, at times

Besides, Douglass has utilized the ironic tool in the paragraph of his essay. For instance, although he lived as a slave at the time of his learning process, he explains to the readers that he brought bread when doing one part of chores so he could exchange for a reading lesson from local children before his return. He acknowledges: "I felt much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood" (Douglass 26), which is ironic because Douglass himself would probably be in a worse position. Moreover, this kind of irony also presented at the top of the essay, Douglass called himself a slave which reminded the audiences that slaves did not happen in some faraway land; it happened in America – the land of freedom that can also be the land of slavery. Additionally, it is hard to believe for the white American that in the mid-1880s, a black person could even learn to read and less write a book (Shmoop Editorial Team).

Frederick Douglass During the year of 1852, Frederick Douglass came forth and denounced the evil of the Fourth of July. The Fourth of July was when the colonies won the British in the American Revolutionary War. Douglass didn’t agree to the celebration of the Fourth of July. In his point of view, he saw it as a day of hypocrisy. Frederick, a born slave, knew the truth behind the Fourth of July known as a day of freedom.

On the eve of the Civil War, the abolitionist movement and the opposition to slavery were very strong and powerful. While many people knew that slavery was a disgusting and degrading institution, there was not much first-hand information available about the inhumane effects that slavery had on both black and white people. In his narrative, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Frederick Douglass demonstrates the dehumanizing effects slavery had, not only on African slaves, but also on the white population. In order to kindle the abolitionist movement and the opposition to slavery, Douglass includes his own personal accounts of life as a slave in America and utilizing elevates diction and vivid imagery

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery around 1835 in Tuckahoe. (12 Miles from Talbot County) In his Narrative, Frederick not only describes his struggles and hardships during his time as a slave, but also with escaping slavery. When he was young, Frederick did not know his father, though he thought that his father was a white slave owner. (Maybe even his own master).

The document Frederick Douglass Narrative, excreted from his 1845 autobiography, is about his life as a child slave on a plantation. Vividly describing his childhood in his opening chapters, readers get the full effect of what not only happened to Douglass, but what was also the norm for most of American slaves. He wrote about his knowledge and experiences as a child slave, and gave readers the true meaning of what slave families went through, in comparison to what was published in the media by whites. One of the main arguments presented in Douglass’s autobiography is the way women are treated and how they live as a family. From a very young age, before he was even a year old, Douglass was separated from his African mother, Harriet Bailey,

Freedom is Sweet In her narrative “The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave”, Mary Prince presents the appalling details of the lives of slaves to pose an argument against slavery. Prince was born into slavery and never received the sweet freedom she so desired for herself, but wrote her narrative in hopes that it would provide the influence necessary to free the world from the chains of slavery. Limiting and destructive, slavery presented itself in every aspect of Prince’s life, from when she was separated from her family and husband, to when she had to dictate her story since slaves were never taught to write. Nevertheless, Prince persevered to recount the dangers of slavery in a short narrative portraying the unique struggles of women

The Irrationality of Slavery In the 19th century, the nation was in the midst of one of the most heated debates in its short history, one that fractured the nation from the inside out. The issue that divided and alienated common countrymen was that of slavery; many in the South supported the institution on the grounds that slavery was actually beneficial – both for the economy and the slave – while many in the North, separate from the bias resulting from a dependency on slavery, argued that it was an outdated, unnecessary, and immoral system that was beneficial to none. One of the most influential pieces of literature to support the abolitionist movement was Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, published in 1845

Fredric Douglass wrote, “What to the Slave is Fourth of July” in 1852. In this speech to the American public, Douglass states how great of a country American “was” and how great the forefathers “were”. In contrast to those statements he professes his reasoning for freeing slaves. However, Mary Rowlandson wrote, “A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” in 1682. This captive narrative takes place during the King Philips war, and depicts how the native Americans treated their prisoners of war.

1.Before reading this speech, I never thought of the fact that blacks felt like “outcasts” during the 4th of July. 2.Douglass really made it a point that “the fourth of July is yours, not mine” (1). He is speaking about only whites celebrated Independence while blacks still do not have independence. 3.In this speech, Douglass mocked the United States for being a “hypocrite” when it came to independence in terms of America’s religious beliefs at the time.