From the moment his master forbade him to learn to read, Frederick Douglass, writer and former slave, realized that literacy was the "way from slavery to freedom” (Douglass 77). He appeared to be talking about his own escape from slavery, but it is possible that he was referring to the emancipation of all black people in the South, since his goal in his writing was always primarily to gain support for the abolitionist movement and transform public opinion. against slavery. Shortly after fleeing to the North, he began using his illegally acquired ability to write speeches, articles, and his account of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Douglass understood the importance of history and its influence on present actions, and understood that those who can best shape the meaning of history and current events can best influence those actions. With this in mind, he used these writings to attempt to shape public opinion on slavery. However, he wrote during a volatile and ever-changing era in American history, so to better respond to changes and shape interpretations, he had to modify his arguments and rhetorical styles. In writing his Narrative before the Civil War, Douglass's goal was simply to sway public opinion against slavery, whereas the articles he wrote during the war contain more specific calls to action. His narrative largely uses emotional appeals to manipulate the reader's sympathy and empathy, as well as his philosophy to establish credibility, while his writings on the Civil War focus more on logical arguments to support his specific claims and on the pathetic to strengthen the arguments. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Before the South seceded and the Civil War came, it was unclear whether slavery would ever end. Southern slave owners wanted the institution of slavery to appear as a benevolent system, that they were good masters who provided for their slaves. In his narrative, Douglass reveals the ugly and violent truths about slavery that he witnessed or experienced, largely using emotional appeals to influence the thoughts of his white audience. His goal in writing this book was to convince readers to oppose slavery, using these appeals to get them to sympathize or empathize with slaves as fellow human beings. Throughout the story, he piles on example after example of the horrific mistreatment suffered by slaves, hoping that readers' emotional reactions would lead them to strongly oppose slavery. He hopes that getting more people to oppose it would help speed up abolition. He begins immediately, with a gentle example, beginning the second sentence with the statement “I have no precise knowledge of my age” (49). He goes on to say that he never met a slave who knew his own birthday. Although this may seem insignificant, he tells readers that "white children could know their ages" and that he "could not say why [he] should be deprived of the same privilege" (49), thus demonstrating that knowledge of his age and age. birthdays are things that northerners would have taken for granted. The absence of such a small but valuable thing would have been a shock to readers. He shows that from a very young age he felt dehumanized by slavery and comparing it. the races, try to bring the readerswhite people to understand the dehumanization he felt considering how they would feel if they didn't know their birthday or age. From there, the emotional appeals only intensify. In the following chapter, he describes the few properties attributed. slaves, according to Douglass, "Their annual clothing consisted of two shirts of coarse linen, one pair of linen trousers...a jacket, winter trousers, of coarse black cloth, a pair of stockings and a pair. shoes; the whole thing could not have cost more than seven dollars” (56). In describing the low quality and small quantity of the only clothing they could obtain in a year, he makes sure to mention the estimated price so that free white readers can compare the amount with what they spend on clothing. Since they obviously spend a lot more than that, Douglass wants them to feel guilty. We hope that readers will feel less good about themselves and, therefore, sympathize more with the slaves. His inclusion of the detail that "children of seven to ten years of age, of both sexes, almost naked, could be seen at all seasons of the year" (56) when their clothes became unusable, is also intended to shock the audience, horrifying him with this unfair treatment of children and once again arousing public sympathy. The most extreme examples of his emotional appeals involve the physical abuse of slaves. Rather than trying to make the audience understand the physical pain, he describes the scenes in detail to make them feel the horror he felt watching this pain inflicted on others. In the first chapter he mentions what happened to his aunt Hester when she disobeyed their master's orders. The master "took her into the kitchen and undressed her from the neck to the waist, leaving her...completely naked" and began to whip her, "and soon the blood was hot and red (amid the heartbreaking screams from her and the horrible screams) oaths from her) flowed to the ground” (54) He then gives several examples of the beatings and whippings he suffered, but it would be unreasonable to ask his free audience. to identify with these situations that have no equivalent in their lives Instead, he recounts this memory of seeing his aunt being abused in vivid and graphic detail so that the audience can imagine the experience. scene and watch it with him, hoping that while they feel sympathy for the aunt, they also sympathize with the "terror and horror" (54) feelings he felt while watching it. was a child. Douglass includes all these appeals to readers' sympathy to make them feel worse for the slaves with each example. In this way, he uses pathos to try to achieve the goal of his story, by turning people against slavery. However, Douglass wrote the narrative at a time of intense prejudice in America, even in the free North. Black people, especially former slaves, were not expected to be able to write or speak as well as he did. Because of this, many people doubted the authenticity of his work, making it difficult for him to achieve the purpose of his story. He was forced to use ethos frequently, to establish his credibility and thus increase the effectiveness of his work in convincing people to agree with him. To explain why he, as a former slave, is able to write well, he recounts how he began learning to write and why he continued to learn. After he began serving a new family, his mistress, Mrs. Auld, "began to teach [him] the words A, B, C. After he learned that, she helped him learn to spell three-word words. or four letters” (76).When his master discovered this, he forbade his wife from teaching him any further. It was at this point that Douglass understood why whites did not want blacks to be literate. "I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty - namely, the power of the white man to enslave the black man... While I was saddened by the thought of losing the help of my kind mistress, I was happy with the invaluable instruction which, by the simplest accident, I had acquired from my master” (77). the ability to read and write to alleviate the skepticism of some of his readers He hopes that, seeing his powerful desire to learn, they will understand why he is able to write so well and stop questioning it. authenticity of his work When readers are not preoccupied with doubting his text, they will read it with a more open mind and will be more sensitive to its emotional appeals. In this way, Douglass uses ethos, appealing to the. authenticity of his character, to advance the purpose of his work The texts that Douglass writes during the Civil War do not focus on his experiences as a slave, but are based on evidentiary arguments. For this reason, he does not need to rely on ethos in these texts as he did in the Narrative. These writings, unlike his narrative, have clear goals and specific calls to action. Now that the South had seceded and the North was fighting to bring them back into the Union, there seemed to be a chance to end slavery. While in the narrative Douglass recounts his experiences to generate sympathy, he no longer sees the need to simply convince people to oppose slavery. During the war, he makes specific arguments about current events and believes that following these arguments could lead to the end of the war, the end of slavery, and better treatment for free blacks. To make these points, he uses logical rhetoric much more extensively, but still uses pathos to make these logical arguments more effective. However, pathos is used more forcefully and to appeal to different emotions than before. In his article “Fighting Rebels With Only One Hand,” his main goal is clear: African Americans should be allowed to fight for the Union Army. He supports his assertions with logical arguments, but to make his speech more effective, he continues to resort to pathos. Comparing the country to a burning building, he says its owners "are determined that the flames will only be put out by Indo-Caucasian hands and that the building will burn rather than be saved by others." Such is the pride, stupid prejudices and madness that reign today. » He then asks, “Why is the government rejecting black people? Isn't he a man? Can he not [be a soldier] like the others?... We believe that such soldiers, if they are allowed to take up arms to defend the government and if they feel that they must henceforth be recognized as people with rights, it would add in every possible way to the national power." Douglass argues logically that allowing blacks to fight would increase the strength of the North with a larger army, but he does so in a Rather than simply saying that allowing blacks to fight would turn the war in favor of the North, ending the war more quickly, he emotionally charged his language, calling this prejudice "stupid.. . madness” to ridicule those who oppose the right of blacks to be soldiers by comparing the country to a building.,.