Frederick Douglass, Rhetorician

6. How did the South justify slavery?

The south justified slavery by claiming that the economy would collapse completely without slaves, that it would create extreme unemployment and then the unemployed would riot and cause total anarchy, that slavery has been around so long that it is natural for one man to be below the other, or that it is supported by the bible. To quote Fredrick Douglas “I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of the land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of 'stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.' I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me. We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. . . . The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time. The dealers in the bodies and souls of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other—devils dressed in angels’ robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise.”

5.Why was Douglass' narrative considered "radical" when published? Is it still?

At the time that Frederick published his narrative, many people believed his ideas to be extremely radical. Most of the southern, and even some northern, slaveholders thought that his ideas of free slaves and equality were complete nonsense. With their religious and social justifications, they thought of African Americans to be manual laborers and assistants to the success of their plantations. Since Douglass referred to himself as an exemplary black individual, many of the slaveholders thought this idea to be false because there was no such thing. At the time, there was no such thing as an exemplary black individual and there would not be until the abolition of slavery many years later. Many people at the time did not see slavery the way that he did because he was a slave, while they were not. In modern society, we view his ideas as reasonable and not idealistic because slavery was eventually abolished. Since Douglass' views of equality reached many people, a revolution began to end the cruel institution and today we view his ideas as heroic and proper for the humane treatment of African Americans

Frederick Douglass, Rhetorician

4. Why is universal education necessary for human freedom?

By Lais Marques and Hunter Chilcoat

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Without education one can easily be tricked into blindly following another. Without an education and knowledge you can lose your own opinion and be persuaded to take another. To quote Douglass “I have observed this in my experience of slavery, - that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceased to be a man.” Once a man has gained an education he will always question his lot and wish for something better.

1. How does Frederick Douglass use rhetoric throughout his narrative to promote the ideals of freedom?

Douglass first finds out that the key to his freedom is education from his Master Auld, who forbids his wife of continuing to teach Douglass the ABC’s. It is ironic that in being forbidden from learning, he in fact learns just how he can gain his freedom. He writes, “I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it”. Throughout his stay in Baltimore, Douglass manages to have the little white boys in the streets teach him how to read and write. He recalls having a conversation with the boys, in which he’d say “You will be free as soon as you are twenty-one, but I am a slave for life! Have not I as good a right to be free as you have?” (Douglass 44). In saying this he is clearly appealing to the boys’ emotions, as he consequently describes their reactions as “…they would express for me the liveliest sympathy, and console me with the hope that something would occur by which I might be free” ( Douglass 44).

3. To what extent was Frederick Douglass able to change the national set of values through his individual actions?

2. In the novel Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, how is education related to human freedom?

Fredrick Douglas believes that education is essential to any one person’s freedom because without it one cannot be truly aware of their surroundings and can easily be tricked into servitude. To quote Douglass “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” In other words once you learn nothing can hold you again. Another quote “Some know the value of education by having it. I know it's value by not having it.” shows that education is worth everything.

Throughout his narrative, Douglass offers detailed descriptions of some of the horrors of slavery that he experienced firsthand. Being a former slave, he is, of course, highly credible for his narration of events. He first tells of his seeing his aunt being whipped by the overseer of his first master, and described it then as “…the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it”. In this he appeals to the audience’s emotions, his comparison of slavery to hell as well as his own inability to describe his feelings at this scene would thug at any one’s heart. As the narrative goes on he continues to describe more awful events dealing with the treatment of other slaves, such as Demby, who was shot and killed by the overseer Mr. Gore, who thought nothing of it. He also tells of Henrietta and Mary, who we most certainly abused by their masters, to the point of looking like “…the most mangled and emaciated creatures I ever looked upon…”. It is through these descriptions of the treatment of slaves that Douglass manages to open his audience’s eyes to just how cruel and dehumanizing slavery truly is.