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Taylor Howard
Professor Pope
Writing 1000
20 October 2016
Walking with a Man of Wisdom
Frederick Douglass lived the first half of his life enslaved in Maryland before he became
a leader and a writer for his people concerning the cause of abolition. In 1845 he was able to
share his story, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, with intentions of informing those
who weren't aware, just how ugly and vile slavery was. Douglass recounts the hardships and
hellish stories of his early life as a slave with descriptive language, rich with imagery in an effort
to bring to light the dehumanizing aspects that are present in slavery. He speaks about his lack of
basic human needs that are taken for granted every day, the evils his innocent eyes were forced to
watch, and the corruption of those responsible for such acts who were once innocent humans.
In 1845 when Douglass was first published by The Anti-Slavery Office in Boston, his
writing was intended to change the way that white people viewed him and his ideology. They did
not want Douglass to influence black people to follow his footsteps, and more importantly they
did not want black people to analyze slavery. Once he published his narrative, he could then
begin to focus on more important subject or writing rather than his personal story. While most
readers were likely astounded by the fact that a previous slave had written this book, some, most
likely supporters of abolition, may have felt enlightened by the idea of his story of overcoming
defying odds. With this publication the movement towards complete abolition of slavery was
fueled, while simultaneously enraging those with slaves. After publication, Douglass sailed to
Ireland to hide away for two years in fear of being captured by his previous owner. It was then

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that he managed to have supporters of his raise $700 to purchase his emancipation from his legal
owner.
Frederick Douglass successfully appeals to his audience by conveying his emotions,
drawing sympathy and empathy from readers, and by proving his authenticity with his first-hand
recollections of the events which took place before him. Douglass does a phenomenal job writing
with vivid imagery and heavily descriptive stories. Immediately within the opening paragraph
Douglass begins to build his ethos when he says he does not know his own age, nor does he
recall having met another slave who knows their own birthday. He then goes on to say how it is
by the wish of their masters that the slaves were exempt from this information, keeping their
ignorance high. He continues to build his credibility by sharing examples of specific details of
events that he witnessed as a child onwards. Douglass then establishes an emotional appeal to his
audience, implementing pathos into his work by describing his first-hand experiences in a way
that allows the audience to empathize with Douglass and understand what it felt like to be owned
by another person. For example, he talks about how as a child he would see large ridges stand up
on the backs of those struck by a whip. The graphic description of the nightmarish images causes
the reader to feel the same fright that Douglass must have felt as a boy.
Douglass often is seen using irony to identify the issues behind the logic within slavery.
This can be seen in chapter three when Douglass describes Colonel Lloyds horses. Lloyds
horses were some of the finest and from noble blood. The houses of these horses were almost as
nice as Lloyds own home itself. Lloyd was the most particular in his work for his horse more
than any other task on the plantation. Management was left to old Barney and young Barney
father and son slaves. No matter how good of work or how hard they tried to please Lloyd,
something was always wrong, and with that came the severest of punishment. Colonel Lloyd had
three sons and three sons-in-law, all whom enjoyed whipping the slaves as they pleased.

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Douglass emphasizes on Colonel Lloyds treatment of the slaves in comparison to his horses to
show how a man willingly treated his animals better than he treated his slaves. This is important
because it truly reveals how worthless these slaves were in the eyes of a slave owner. Douglass is
very effective with his use of irony as he is able to show how these slaves were more than
dehumanized, seen as less than a barn animal.
Douglass begins to shift towards a period in his life where he felt rather hopeful about his
then current situation. So hopeful, in fact that the three days leading up to his departure were
three of the happiest days he ever enjoyed. It is here that Douglass uses repetition to emphasize
descriptions with both negative and positive connotations. Firstly, he describes the images of
children when it was time to eat. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so
many pigs they would come and devour the mush (Douglass 16). It is evident that he chose to
use repetition here when metaphorically comparing children to animals, because animals are
exactly what these children were to their slaveholders. The strength behind this quotation lays
within the repeated metaphor of children as pigs. Douglass really drives the perspective of which
the slaveholders held on these children to show just how wicked and corrupt the minds of the
slaveholders were. On the contrary, Douglass also uses repetition to convey a positive feeling he
has about a rather charming memory. He describes the face of a beautiful woman as a sight he
had never seen; It was a white face beaming with the most kindly emotions; it was the face of
my new mistress, (18). Here Douglass uses repetition to call to attention that this was not just
any ordinary person, but a person of great significance to him. Douglass finds this girl
astonishing for he has never seen a white person look so happily at an enslaved person before.
His repetition in this sentence effectively explains the importance of this woman to him.
Further on in chapter eight, Douglass explains how his head master died, leaving his
property to be divided amongst his children. Everything from stables to individual slaves were

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valued and ranked. It is within this explanation that we can see an example, a rather powerful
one, of Douglass use of anecdotes. They took her to the woods, built her a little hut, put up a
little mud chimney, and then made her welcome the privilege of supporting herself there in
perfect loneliness; thus virtually turning her out to die! (29) Despite Douglass grandmothers
faithfulness to her master, rocking him as an infant, taking care of him as a child, still she is
expelled from the plantation and sent away. It goes to show just how little these slave owners
saw of their slaves. This anecdote shows where slavery places an individual; if they are
physically incapable of work, they are useless. In particular, this specific anecdote was very well
written, providing a perfect example of how meaningless these human-beings were to their
owners.
In chapter ten of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass describes his time
with Mr. Covey, Douglass employer. Douglass spent time with Mr. Covey working as a field
hand for the first time in his life. With his mind set on hopes of one day being a free man,
Douglass describes theses dreams as being contained by Mr. Coveys harsh treatment. It is in the
following setting in which Douglass describes how the beautiful white sails make him feel,
exclaiming his thoughts through a chilling apostrophe. You are loosed from your moorings, and
are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I
sadly before the bloody whip! (38). Douglass carries on the apostrophe, alternating in
comparison with him and the life-like white sails. This apostrophe is rich with symbolic
meaning; the white sails clearly representing freedom. When describing the freed sails, he uses
generous words such as merrily, while in contrast using words with negative connotation, like
bloody and chains to describe himself. Douglass truly proved his writing abilities within this
chillingly powerful apostrophe.

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Frederick Douglass had an endless number of reasons to write share this writing, though
his primary objective was to prove to his white colleagues the authenticity of his upbringing, and
to silence their doubts. Ultimately, Douglass was very effective in sharing his life story in vivid
detail and strikingly graphic imagery. I feel as though this writing was able to accomplish not
only his primary objective, but simultaneously accelerated the journey of making abolition a
reality.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was published with the intention of
authenticating Douglass origin. Douglass effectively combines symbolism, irony, anecdotes and
other rhetorical devices to birth a tale of a journey so painfully moving, educating those who
dont truly know the hell that slavery is.

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Works Cited

"Frederick Douglass Apostrophe to the White Sails." My Blog. N.p., 12 Nov. 2014. Web. 19
Oct. 2016.
"Apostrophe - Examples and Definition of Apostrophe." Literary Devices. N.p., 29 May 2015.
Web. 19 Oct. 2016.