Fredrick Douglas essays

Fredrick Douglas essays After reading the Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave, I have received a better understanding of the life of a slave. Douglass has a way of explaining the trials and tribulations of a slave, which makes the reader, look at the situations in a different perspective. Douglass' narrative was originally oral and he eventually sat down and wrote it as story of events of that time during his life. I believe he wrote it not just to tell his story but for other abolitionists of the time to actually feel what the slaves went through. Douglass begins his narrative in a very original way. He does not jump into the accounts of his life. But he begins very passive and describes the overseers in a detailed manner. He compares one of his slave masters, Mr. Covey, to a horse breaker. A horse breaker trains horses to be obedient and this is exactly what Mr. Covey does, he trains slaves in a similar way. The audience Douglass is trying to appeal to are the other abolitionists who he wants to convince that these masters were wrong for their treatment of other human beings. The other abolitionists consist mainly of white, middle-class individuals, usually women. They were the most literate people of the time, therefore they could read this story and understand where Douglass was coming from. He did not go into gruesome details because the women of that time could not handle the gory descriptions of the beatings and discussing things like blood would have offended women. If Douglass' narrative contained these images it would have carried a negative connotation. Douglass' main argument in the narrative was to end the institution of slavery as a whole. His goal was to appeal to the middle-class people of that time and convince them to get on board with the abolitionist movement. Douglass had a great writing style that was descriptive as well as convincing. He uses standard English instead of the vernacular...