Examples Of Ethos In Frederick Douglass

Especially, Douglass employs the use of deliberate and measured rationality and inquiry tone to convince his audience. Additionally, he utilizes logos in terms of historical facts to back up his plea for equality in American society, also he uses logic where he talks about the fact that slaves are human. He points how people know this fact, but they just choose to ignore it. Another way that he appeals to logos is talking about how some people don’t understand what the Fourth of July

Therefore, he appears quite compelling when he attempts to bring out the connection between religion and slavery. Looking at what Douglass went through as a slave, it is unfortunate that his act of reading the Bible was considered a violation of the law. At one point, Douglass narrated that his master’s wife offered Douglass with help to read and write. However, due to “advice” given by her husband and the connection between the Bible and slavery, Douglass’s master’s wife turned against him and was now cruel and bitter towards him.

To start off, Douglass uses the rhetorical appeal, logos, to denounce the actions of the slave owners. Douglass describes the characteristics of a cruel overseer, Mr. Severe. “He died very soon after… and he died as he lived, uttering… bitter curses and horrid oaths” (Douglass, 19). The contrast in the two words “died” and “lived” also relates to logic, or rather the lack of logic, because his horrible actions caused him to die a horrible death. It shows that slaveholders are hard-headed on their attitudes on slavery, which uncovers the lack of compassion displayed by the slave owners. To build on, the word “oath” signifies having Christian values. Typically, Christians take oaths to never lie and to speak the truth, yet slave owners allow themselves to lie to their own beliefs when they treat slaves as if they were not human. Slave owners justify the way they act, by dehumanizing slaves and treating them as animals or property. Furthermore, Mrs. Auld, the wife of a slave owner, demonstrates how slavery rots the soul of slave owners. She starts out teaching young Douglass how to read and write and then becomes just like all the other corrupted slave owners. “The tender heart became stone, and the lamb-like disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness” (Douglass, 34). In the quote, Douglass uses an antithesis varying in words such as, “tender” and “stone”. Contrasting words appeal to logos, because this evidence helps justify the argument that slavery transforms slave owners, in this case, Mrs. Auld. He also uses animals “lamb” and “tiger” to emphasize the similarities of animals and slaves at this time. It can also relate to

Slavery is one of the darkest parts of American History. Slave narratives are personal accounts written by former slaves about their experiences during slavery as well as their struggles to obtain freedom. The slave narratives offer chronological events and individual experiences. This is important because it gives us writers perspective on slavery. Slaves, like Frederick Douglass and Jacobs, wrote narratives using ethos, pathos, and logos in their rhetoric to persuade their readers. In comparing both authors, Frederick Douglass uses pathos the most effectively.

Slave owners used Christianity as an excuse for the awful ways they treated their slaves. Christianity played a major role on the increase of brutality and violence that spirited the slave owners. The scriptures in the Bible were twisted in the eyes of slave owners to how they wanted to interpret them. Douglass had a powerful experience with one of his masters, Thomas Auld. Mr. Auld was not a religious person and treated the slaves very poorly. In August 1832, Auld attended a Methodist camp meeting and that marked the day when he became religious, and suddenly even more cruel. “Prior to his conversion, he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty.” After becoming religious, Auld uses scripture to justify his cruelty. Douglass thought that with discovering religion and using it, Auld would become more polite as how Douglass viewed Christianity. Unfortunately that was not the case. Auld justifies that being affiliated with religion would not change a person for the better. Being a slave, Douglass found that slave owners found religious sanction for their cruelty. “He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.", was what a slave owner had said to justify why he beat

Douglass shows that people who claimed to be moral Christians were torturers of humans. He presents the irony of this situation in the book. "His (the master's) house was the preachers' home. They (the preachers) used to take great pleasure in coming there to put up; for while he starved us, he stuffed them."(40-41) Douglass is presenting his audience with the two faces of the slave holder's version of Christianity; the selfish greed hidden behind piousness. In addition to this Douglass also makes sarcastic descriptions of people and places, describing how un-Christian they were by calling them Christian. "(I)t is almost an unpardonable offense to teach slaves to read in this Christian county."(32)

Slavery had slithered its way into the society Douglass lived in; it corrupted them and brought out the worst, yet it couldn’t smother the smallest fraction of morality in some people. Douglass comments on the difference in treatment of slaves in a city environment compared to a plantation when he says, “[t]here is a vestige of decency, a sense of shame, that does much to curb and check those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty so commonly enacted upon the plantation.” (46) Using logos, Douglass shines light on the fact that, while slavery is already entrenched in their society, it still bothers the moral of many people when their own violent and inhumane acts are brought out to the public. He says that there is a ‘vestige of decency’ and a ‘sense of shame’ in the city slaveholders. But, if slavery was so ingrained

Throughout the book Douglass characterizes himself using the events that have happened in his life and around it. First of all he quotes a abolitionist with a similar viewpoint “Gone, gone, sold and gone To the rice swamp dank and lone, Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, Where the noisome insect stings, Where the fever-demon strews Poison with the falling dews, Where the sickly sunbeams glare Through the hot and misty air:— Gone, gone, sold and gone To the rice swamp dank and lone, From Virginia hills and waters— Woe is me, my stolen daughters!”(61) This quote shows how a white poet and abolitionist has the same point of view as Douglass causing his credibility to go up and for the reader believe Douglass point of view and message more.

Frederick Douglas narrative of his life has been applauded for its depravity of slavery, but also for its ability to capture the reader’s attention. The novel is a bleakly truthful picture of the inhuman treatment of slaves in the 1800s. Douglas connected with readers by using specific verbiage to contend for the corruption of slaves.

Douglass’s Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is a biographical novel of his life as slave. He expresses and reflects the social life of America in slavery era, the journey of his struggling and witnessing of cruelty that showed at that time. That era is an era of capitalism where the capitalist (white people) rules everything as the ruler or rich businessman that has plantation and the worker without payment or slave (black people) as their property tools to make them more rich with their business. They rule their business (plantation) and the workers (slaves) under the care of their cruel overseer. But not seldom they do cruel punish to the slave by her/him self. It reflects in Douglass’s Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass:

Quite often Douglass makes note of the Christian hypocrisy shown by slave owners. It is quite prevalent how they use religious text to justify their actions, this is meaningful in the debate on slavery. Douglass also finds the meaning of the law against slaves learning to read and write to keep slaves ignorant and to accept that they are born into slavery. The use of Christianity to justify an end to slavery is also prevalent in the

Douglass mentions in his novel how religious some of his masters are. Most of his masters find “religious sanction and support for [their] slaveholding cruelty” (Douglass, 57). For instance, one of his masters, Master Thomas, would quote a Scripture- “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes” (Douglass, 58)- in order to justify the whipping of his slaves. Frederick Douglass often says that the most religious slaveholders are also the worst and the meanest because they use the Word of God to validate the punishment of

The force of violence controls the identity of the enslaves. “ Given that the human appetite for cruel spectacles is unabated and that arousal by scenes of cruelty remains part of the human condition, it is remarkable that punishment” controls the aspects of a persons thoughts and actions. (Zangwill 11) The slave master shows no respect for his worker’s birth name, parents, family or feelings. Northup claims his identity is that of a free man; violence, beatings and handcuffs from Burch the slaveholder assures him his identity is that of a slave.(Northup,26) After severe torture and punishment, a slave learns to accept his identity or die trying to change it. “I was only a nigger and new my place”, (Northup,241) is evident that a slave is what his master says he is. Solomon Northup whose name is change several times by his master to Platt.(50) Although slavery is abolished today, there is still a negative effect on African American’s that still remain. For example, a mother is given the right to name her child and until the child desire to change it remains. However, there is still a negative connotation associated with the African American name today.

Throughout the book Douglass acts as both the narrator and the protagonist within his story, although he appears quite different in both roles. Douglass portrays himself as an uneducated, slave to articulate the difference between his older self and his younger self in the city of Annapolis seeing both sides of the issue of slavery. As you continue to read Douglass’s tone does not change in any way necessary making no extra exaggerations on the issue of slavery even for slave owners. His vision of individual slave owning, allows him to present himself in a deeper feeling with expressional emotions him and other suffered. As an American slave Douglass represents his younger self in Chapter 1 less similarity to other slaves, stating merily as an eyewitness to other circumstances that happened to the other characters. Although, Douglass has a desire to help not only himself, but moreover his fellow slaves he reestablishes his sense of self and justice through his life of slavery.

Finally, the author uses diction to present slaveholders cowardice by dramatizing his daily situation when preparing his escape “advise me to complete thoughtlessness of the future, and taught me to depend solely upon him for happiness.” pg.106. By appealing to pathos and exaggerating slaves situation, Douglass intents to show the fear of slaveholders through connotation. Slaveholders have nothing in their lives without slaves, so they used manipulated their slaves to satisfy themselves. Slaveholders control every aspect in the life of a slave to prevent progress in slaves lives to block decay in slavery which would be a disaster for slaveholders. In conclusion this illuminates slaveholders selfishness to show their success to a biased community