Slavery In Learning To Read And Write, By Frederick Douglass

“Learning to Read and Write”, by renown Frederick Douglass, makes an effective argument against slavery by using pathos to appeal to the reader 's emotion. The document explained from his point of view, that he was treated “perfectly” fine as a house slave before slavery came into full effect. He also expounds on the fact, once slavery was fully effective, his mistress, Mrs.Hugh, changed for the worse toward him. In the text it states,“Unders it’s influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness.” Creating visuals using animals is the author’s way of demonstrating who his mistress was before slavery had been enforced and the person she had swiftly become after. This text uses a magnitude of pathos to make the audience feel as he did in that time period.

Slavery is the root of the evil that was demonstrated during the 1800’s that transformed so called regular master to slave relationships to cruel and unusual treatment; was the main idea that advances in, “Learning to Read and Write”. The subject matter of the chapter is slavery affected something as simple as a …show more content…
The words add a dimension to the essay, taking the audience back to that time period, the 1800’s. The phrases in the essay allude to textual time travel from the present to the past, further than the time period of Frederick Douglass writing this. The textual time travel for the audience would be the time period Douglass was experiencing the brutality of being a slave. The essay averages 25-26 sentences per sentence which also stands out and makes a hidden yet bold statement. The essay is written by someone who had to teach himself to read, the fact that he could build up the vocabulary and the stamina to write a distinctive except such as “Learning to Read and Write,” in extraordinary circumstances in his regard as a former