In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass uses descriptive detail and pathos to delineate the evil and harsh realities of slavery and to illustrate why it should be abolished. In the very beginning of his story, Douglass precedes to give the readers a very harsh image of what he encounters. Douglass wanted people to know that even at a very young age, slaves witnessed and endured horrible actions. Douglass’s overseer was a very cruel man and when Douglass was just a child he witnessed him traumatically beat a relative. Douglass said, “I have often been awakened at the dawn of the day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered in blood”(15). Douglass was just a young boy, he should have never had to witness such cruelties. Essentially Douglass’s childhood and dignity was stripped away from him. Slave children were treated much like how animals would be treated. Children were not clothed or taken care of properly, they were nearly starved and conditions were abhorrent. Douglass said that when they did get fed their meal, it was a coarse cornmeal that, “was …show more content…
His grandmother had lived through many generations of her slave owner’s and took care of them, along with other slaves. When she became too old and frail to go on, her owners sent her away from any family to die all alone in a hut in the woods. Douglass creates a painful image when he says, “She stands-she sits-she staggers-she falls-she groans-she dies- and there are none of her children or grandchildren present, to wipe from her wrinkled brow the cold sweat of death... ” (41). By Douglass sharing this, he is showing how the slave owners did not show any compassion towards the slaves, even though the slaves devoted their whole life to