What Is The Rhetorical Use Of Rhetoric In Frederick Douglass

Douglas defines what it means to be American in the narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglas, an American slave. His narrative strives to promote integration by arguing the faults in the legal and social systems of the United States. His rhetorical use of pathos appeals to the African American society because it narrates Douglas’ path to fight for freedom. This narrative serves to demand what it means to be an American in the South because in Douglas’ point of view, the South governs with an anti-American system that is a perversion of Christianity. He wants to disclose how slavery became an intrinsically American. The argument is solid because he analyzes the society that enforces slavery to reveal the circumstances. Because Douglas was born into slavery and realized that it was not “true to the life” (Douglas, 1000) he was able to appeal to slaves that thought their state was natural. Americans govern on the false beliefs that religious and economic arguments verified a reason for African Americans to be inherently lower to Americans; they belonged as the enslaved. Douglass makes a clear case that slavery is not sustained through the natural superiority of Americans, but through education and strategies that will hold power over Americans. Douglas provides evidence to show how slavery corrupts its slave owners to …show more content…
The white sails in Chesapeake Bay stimulate feelings of both determination and anger— “those beautiful vessels robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition” (974). While Douglas is working for Convey, the white sails symbolize his demoralized state that has kept him “confined in bands of iron” (974); he is spiritually and physically demoralized. However, because the sails are traveling north, they represent a motive to seize his