Preview

Frederick Douglass essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
899 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Frederick Douglass essay
Frederick Douglass is an African American icon. Douglass is a man who possessed much strength and very few weaknesses. Frederick Douglass was intelligent, courageous, determined, mentally & physically strong, Knowledgeable, and creative. He found great pleasure in his work with others and often put them above himself. He was rarely seen as aggressive when he fought Covey, he did not actually fight back but simply resisted Covey's attack. He was tireless in his devotion to abolish slavery. He toured the North and gave speeches, wrote journals, and told his life story time and time again. He provided a voice for those who were still demented from the horrors of slavery. Douglass was a brilliant writer and speaker. He utilized many rhetorical devices and was found impressive to all who listened to him speak. He was diligent, never giving up on things that were important to him, learning how to read and write, escaping from slavery, and helping his black brethren. He was also selfless, devoting himself to the cause of women's suffrage in his later years.

Frederick Douglass was an extremely intelligent man. He is one of the best writers in his time. He uses metaphor, wit, irony, and many more literary devices. His tone is very even-tempered and distant; when speaking on on many of the most horrifying events he keeps a stable, to the point attitude. Sometimes a little more emotion and exaggeration comes into the writing, but most times Douglass is very calm and cerebral. He often jumps between past and present, sometimes relating personal stories and sometimes reflecting on society and slavery as a whole. There is not that much dialogue present, which helps to elevate the text from personal narrative to historical document. His prose flows well and is unambiguously rendered. He has a great command of language and provides the narrative in an elevated, intellectual fashion. This was much more advanced than many of the other slaves were thought to be able to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass was born as a slave in 1818 on a plantation in Maryland. After many years of enduring the pain and horrifying experiences of being a slave and then running away and staying hidden, he bravely published Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. His narrative tells of his life as a slave, secretly learning to read and write, then leading up to his escape and the beginning of his life in New York. He uses a strong array of syntax, powerful sentence structure, and familiar poetic and biblical references to pull the reader in. These literary techniques are meant to make the reader feel the same fear, helplessness, and anger Frederick Douglass and many other slaves felt at the time.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass was an African-American slave that defied the odds by doing something that none of his own kind could do. This inspirational man learned how to read and write all while working as a slave and trying to overcome the challenges of his lifestyle.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Frederick Douglass Paper

    • 3115 Words
    • 13 Pages

    In February of 1818, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in Talbot County, Maryland. He was born in his grandmother’s cabin, along Tuckahoe creek, to his mother Harriet Bailey. 1.B Harriet Bailey was a slave therefore when she gave birth to her child he also became a slave. Frederick’s mother was an African American while his father’s name was never known it was a known fact that he was a white man. Due to his 2. white father, black mother, and the American Indian he had from his grandmother, he was in fact a mulatto. As a child it was rumored that Frederick’s master was also his father. This was very common back then for the masters to satisfy themselves through their slaves. Children that were fathered by their owner were a constant offense to their mistress because the 4. master may show favor to his children that are not hers. These children could never please the mistress and she enjoyed them getting into trouble. Like most slaves when Frederick was born he was 3.A taken from his mother at only a few weeks old. Throughout his childhood 3.C he saw his mother very few times, and only during the night. When he was seven years old his mother died, and he was not allowed to be present at the end of her life. After he was taken from his parents he spent the 3.B early years of his life with his grandparents and with his aunt.…

    • 3115 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass was many things; he was a former slave, abolitionist, and impressive writer. Despite having his early years plagued by abuse and hardships like any other slave, he was able to overcome these hardships and was able to become a free slave by escape. What sets him apart from other slaves however, is that he was able to write with such power and become an example for his people. This is reflected in his autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. As Douglass recounts the story of his years as a slave and his journey to escape the hold of his masters he uses rhetorical strategies such as metaphors, personification, and polysyndetons to give the reader of his story a vivid description of what his life was like when he was still a slave.…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Antebellum Era, many African-Americans were stripped of their freedom and sold ruthlessly into slavery. Throughout history, many writers and speakers utilize rhetorical strategies to achieve a specific purpose; similarly, former slave Frederick Douglass successfully confronts the issue of slavery through his narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. Becoming a prominent figure in the abolition movement of slavery, Douglass utilizes appeals to emotion as well as a shift in tone to unveil the horrors of slavery and to foster the opposition to the institution of slavery.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I believe that Frederick Douglass put his life as a slave into words that inspired people all around the world. His Autobiographies explained the heartaches of a slave that he was forced to live through for half of his life. Although most people believe in equality today Frederick Douglass didn’t have that right, people took that from him because they believed they were doing the right thing. Douglass was a kind and determined man and didn’t give up until he got the right result. He was not afraid to get his hands dirty in the process even when people doubted him and told him he was wrong.…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass seemed to simply tell his story. He told only of what it was like to be a plantation slave, particularly a male, and all the hardships he went through personally. Douglass went into detail about the graphical beatings he witnessed and undertook which affectively reaches the reader through shame and disbelief. These discriptions sort of scare the reader and make us nervous for Douglass. However, through all the detail, Douglass stops short of telling the affect his experiences have on him. He ‘tells it like it is’ and puts little emotion in his writing.…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Frederick Douglass had a lot of criticism. He had to appeal to the various political,…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    I believe that Douglass’s audience was the white people of America. What his purpose in writing this narrative was because he wanted to make people who supported slavery feel shame in their actions. This claim is shown by how he portrays his life as a slave, how exactly he says things, and what he chooses to omit in this narrative.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    AP Lang Douglass Essay

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In his autobiography "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,” Frederick Douglass uses various rhetorical techniques to illustrate how slaves use music as a form of expression of their sorrow and grief. He describes how music, more specifically in the form of singing, liberates the deep despair and anguish of his subjugated people.…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It’s disappointing how people can me be so unreal, claiming to believe one thing while committing actions that go against that belief simultaneously. In the Narrative of a Slave, an autobiography by Frederick Douglass, Douglass explains how the Christianity that is practiced by slaveholders is the root of the internal conflicts of people leading hypocritical lives by helping them find an excuse for their brutality, through his analysis and examples.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass’ narrative, “Learning to Read and Write” talked about how he accomplished the feat of becoming a literate individual through the use of self-teaching at a young age. Douglass describes the ways in which he enlisted the aid of young children to assist him with his learning. He also went into detail about how his newly acquired abilities “had been a curse rather than a blessing”. (p. 3) Douglass accounted how his ability to read later on assisted him in his succession with “learning how to write” (p. 5)…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He is an inspirational man who had no reading or writing skills, but with all of his passion to learnhe was able to teach himself how to read and write. Even though he struggled as he learned these skills, he realized that “education is freedom,” and that it would set him free in the end. “The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever,” (Douglass, 279). This quote from Douglass’ writing conveys the importance of a liberal education and how it has the ability to set someone free. Even though he had to educate himself, Douglass still turned out to be a well-rounded individual who was able to communicate well and form his own opinions. All in all, Frederick Douglass is a smart liberally educated man who learned from his own education experience, and was able to write about it in order to inspire others to do the…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The article about Frederick Douglass’s autobiography really gave an inside look at the way slaves were so severely mistreated by their masters. It also really exemplifies how valuable an education is. Before actually getting into Douglass’s autobiography, the article begins by discussing how compelling Frederick Douglass’s story was. He was a black man born into slavery and was able to runaway and escape. He was self-educated, he taught himself how to read and write. When he spoke and shared his story people really sympathized. The way that slaves were treated in the south was a lot different from how…

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass’s narrative can and should open the eyes of everyone who reads it. He spoke a lot about his personal experiences of being a slave and his battles as a slave trying to be heard and seen as a human. Douglass is one of the few slaves that had and created opportunities for himself.…

    • 1582 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays