Frederick Douglass Kidnapper Rhetorical Analysis

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Fredrick Douglass, a free slave, wrote an article about a conflict in Boston involving a runaway slave and a kidnapper. The kidnapper attempted to return the runaway slave to his master; during a scuffle, the kidnapper was killed. Douglass penned that if society has the right to preserve itself even at the expense of the life of an aggressor then it was acceptable to kill the kidnapper. Society does have the right to preserve itself even at the expense of an aggressor’s life; therefore, it was acceptable to kill the kidnapper. In Douglass’s article, his argument is formatted to suggest two premises and a conclusion that are both correct and uncontested. Douglass’s believed that it was acceptable to kill the kidnapper. His belief is founded