Slavery By Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

Frederick Douglass’ purpose in writing his narrative was to inform the mainly the northerners and other people with agency, of the horrors that encompass slavery. He shocks his audience by introuducing himself as a man who doesn’t know his age, something so miniscule, yet gargantuan as it goes further to illustrate the dehumanization that encompasses the institution of slavery. As the narrative progresses, the theme of religion begins to emerge, specifically christianity. It then becomes apparent that there is a great disparity between the religion that slaveholders practice and the religion that most people are accustomed to. One is the slaveholding religion, which in nature is oppressive and the other form is simply religion, inherently

This for the master is empowerment, and for the slave, oppressive. It is evident that there was some sort of understanding within the community of slaveholders, that a prosperous master, must be cruel. For instance, Douglass recounts a memory of Master Auld’s transformed demeanor after attending a methodist conversion camp. He states, “it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before. 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” (77). He was not the only one who “found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty.” In fact on a spectrum of christian slaveholders, he was quite moderate in his cruelty, as there was a slaveholder, Mr.Freeman, who saw to it that one of his slave’s backs was completely raw from lashings for several

If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be spiritually enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, like myself, owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently their own masters.

This is a sense, is both oppressive and liberative for the slave. Due to slaveholders interpretation, holding slaves is not contemptible in the eyes of the lord, as god damned Ham and his direct descendants, making them black. It is also liberation for slaves, because as the population grows, there will be more biracial individuals, who wouldn’t be direct descendants of Ham, therefore holding slaves will soon become unscriptural, and they would be