Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

Throughout Douglass’ narrative of his life, he is able to have this image that one day he will no longer be controlled by a master and no longer be a slave and is something Linda in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, cannot ever see because her family is restricting her from this idea. Douglass has no parents or

Douglass uses family relationships, starting with his own birth, to gain the compassion of his target audience. He never knew the identity of his father, but it was "whispered" (Douglass, Narrative, 43) that it was his master. Douglass shocked his Northern white readers when he informed them that slaveholders regularly split slave families for no reason. This upset Northerners because their family units were the foundation of their communities. People couldn't believe that slave children were taken

In Frederick Douglass’ case, he was born into which for him was slavery and his youth years he was isolated away from his mother because slave owners wanted slaves to have no emotions towards their family, but he was one of the Master’s children. In the excerpt Douglass stated, “ My Father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all i ever heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness withheld me. My mother and I were seperated when I was but an infant-- before I knew her as my mother.” He is a young black slave who at first did not have the ability or knowledge to read and is very naïve in understanding his situation. As a child put into slavery Douglass

Continuing with the theme of family values, Douglass shifts to the basic family unit. Their master separated Douglass and his mother when he was an infant, for what reason he “does not know” (Douglass 2). No one gave Douglass an explanation because this situation was customary on plantations. Douglass wanted to horrify his Northern white readers by informing them that slaveholders regularly split slave families for no apparent reason. This obviously would upset Northerners because the family unit was the foundation for their close-knit communities. Multiple generations and extended families lived together or near each other. It was unimaginable to the readers that a society existed that took children away from their mothers without reason. Northerners would think of anyone who was part of such a society as a heartless monster (Quarles ix).

All people have an impetus, either experience or dream to push them forward; for Douglass, his background of slavery and salvation drove him to spread his ideas by oration. Providence threw Douglass into life as the son of a Black slave and her White slave master. The Black slave woman, Douglass’s mother, died when he was just eight years old, forcing Douglass into a life without a true mother figure. Consequently, he

He is also unable to form his identity based on familial relations. Suspecting only that his "father was a white man" and that it was often "whispered that [his] master was [his] father," Douglass was unable to name, let alone have a relationship with, his father (Douglass 255). Furthermore, Douglass writes that he and his mother were separated when he was a baby, and that he was never able to form a relationship with her because he saw her only "four or five times" (Douglass 256). Finally, he was also lacking a familial relationship with his siblings. He writes that "the early separation of [all of them] from [their] mother had well nigh blotted the fact of [their] relationship from [their] memories" (Douglass 272). Under slavery, slaves were not given the rights to family that many slaveholders took for granted. Any slave relationship could end at the whim of the "master." Every slave family stood the possibility of being sold away from one another and never seeing each other again. Slave women were forbidden from disclosing the identity of a child's father if the father was a white man. If the child was descended from the "master," he or she was considered no more human, and no more likely to be spared the trauma of being sold because slaveholders often bought women in childbearing years in order to increase the return on their "investment" when the children were sold. This created, on the part of Douglass, a lack

In conclusion, Frederick Douglass and his mistress have several similarities and differences, when it comes to their inferior positions in society at the time. They both were inferior to Master Hugh who basically controlled them as if they were his sheep. Due to society’s way of thinking during those times, women and Africans were inferior to white men, no matter what actions they took or how privileged they were. Both Douglass and his mistress would have been happy to now know that society has changed. African Americans and women are treated equally and have the

Douglass had only dim memories of his own mother. She had been hired out to another master when he was less than 12 months old and forced to leave him in the care of his grandmother. She sneaked back to visit him four or five times during the first years of his life, always under cover of night. When he was about seven years old, she

Douglass’ use of literary devices enhances the story of his plight. For example, he writes that if the mother is a slave the child shall be as well. He states, “the slaveholder, in cases not a few, sustains to his slave the double relation of master and father” (Douglass, 1999 p.4). The use of litotic phrase emphasizes that this is a common

Based on what I read, Douglass really emphasizes how the lives of slave kids and white kids differentiate. He argues on how slave kids are not allowed the privilege to know their real age, while the white kids have that privilege, and they know exactly how old they are and the exact date of when they were born! Pursuing this further, he also argues the fact that the white kids are allowed to live with their families, and know who their parents are. Douglass and almost all slave kids don't have that privilege. He doesn't know who his father is, and has so little data on who his mother really is. The day his mother passed Douglass was not allowed to attended her memorial ceremony and, felt like it was the death of a complete stranger! Furthermore,

In lines 18-32, Douglass describes what was an abnormality in those times- a white woman (his master’s wife) taking pity on him, and teaching him to read and write. Douglass’s juxtaposition of his master’s wife’s attitude toward him- which was one of a “pious, warm and tender-hearted” nature, to the way the rest of society perceived him as a “mere chattel” helped highlight just how abnormal her behavior was. This contrast further developed through the fact that to treat a slave as a human being back in those days was “not only wrong, but dangerously so,” yet despite that commonplace assertion found all throughout life back then, his master’s wife still treated Douglass no different than she would treat a friend. This section of the text elaborated upon her kind-hearted nature, which led her to pity and help those worse off than her, no matter how society perceived it. Douglass emphasized this point by using mostly long, well constructed sentences that were filled with figurative language. This syntax helped elaborate upon the tone of newfound hope in this section, by demonstrating his flowing thoughts and feelings, due to his newfound freedoms. This syntax helped emphasize the fact that Douglass had acquired the very knowledge slave owners sought to keep from him, therefore acquiring the power that had been kept from him his whole life.

Today almost all children grow up knowing their parents. It is a crime to take children away from their parents under most circumstances. Reflecting back to slave times, taking the slave children away from their parents is dehumanizing to the parents and children. Douglass uses these descriptions in his narrative to convey how poorly slaves were treated. He never really finds out who his father is, but knows he could have been the master, regardless Douglass knows no matter whom his father is, he would still be a slave.

Douglass likes to tell us about his own life in order to depict slave life as a whole. Talking about his own parents is a way of showing how slavery prevents slaves from ever having normal families. For example, slave children unlucky enough to have their white masters as fathers would get whipped by their own fathers and brothers and were often sold to strangers to appease the jealousy of their father's white wife.Douglass predicts that so much interbreeding between slaves and masters will disprove the argument that slavery is justified by God's curse on Noah's son Ham, since before long, most slaves will be descended from both white and black parents. (You can learn more about the Curse of Ham here)Douglass remembers watching his master whip his Aunt Hester. He describes the blood and the insane fury of the beating in gruesome detail. You can tell how traumatic the event was by the way he describes it, giving us a picture through the eyes of a horrified child too innocent to understand what was happening .Chapter II

In document “Excerpt from narrative of Frederick Douglass” says “I know nothing the means of knowledge it was withheld from me my mother and I were separated when I was an infant before I knew her as an my mother is a calming custom in the part of Maryland which i ran away to Part from their mothers favorite little early age. Same as sarney Frederick Douglass and his mother were separated not after long he was born they never go with the same bond other white children had they knew nothing about their followers Frederick Douglass knew that his father was a white man Frederick Douglass and his mother were separated not after long he was born they never grow with

Douglass emphasize in the beginning of the his autobiography by that he wants to know more information about his father. The most important thing he wants to figure out about his father, is that he wants know his history, and in the text it quoted that, " My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage. " This means that he will bearly know his parent's identity. His father was a white man, and it said that, " I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me." This basically means that he does not know anything of his parents and he doesn't want to give any emotion from himself. The reason why he doesn't know his parents identity that well is because when the kid turns their 12 month