Summary Of Slavery By William Lloyd Garrison

In the preface, William Lloyd Garrison (a famous abolitionist) criticized the institution of slavery. He does this by including the anti-slavery words of separate parties involved in the controversy of slavery. For example, take the perspective of the audience at the talk. When Garrison speaks to them, he mentions the peril that Frederick Douglass, a man who has more than proven that he is of good nature, faced during his time as a slave, even in the North. He goes on to ask a simple question - would the audience allow Douglass to return to slavery, law or no law, constitution or no constitution. The response - a unanimous, and quite thunderous, “NO!” (p. 4), really speaks to the truth of slavery. These slaves are no different people in mind, …show more content…
During the preface, Garrison refers to a quote of a speech that O’Connell gave to the Loyal National Repeal Association in 1845. O’Connell professes the hideousness of slavery, stating that, “No matter under what spacious term it may disguise itself, slavery is still hideous” (p. 6). He also adds that “[slavery] has a natural, an inevitable tendency to brutalize every noble faculty of men” (p. 6). Garrison’s inclusion of O’Connell’s words is an outstanding pathos appeal. These words evoke a feeling of sorrow, that those who are endowed in intelligence, in wit, and in charisma, all are broken down slowly because of the institution that has become a dirty word - slavery.
The last of Garrison’s points come not from external sources, but rather from himself. Quite a bit of time is spent deploring the treatment of Douglass while he was a slave. However, the point Garrison makes in this paragraph (p. 7) is not made from his diction, but rather from the rhetoric of his words. Through the usage of a great deal of exclamation points in the paragraph, he shows intense passion for his distaste with the conditions that Frederick Douglass lived in as a slave. Truly, his actions - the exclamation points in the paragraph - speak louder than his …show more content…
After being tortured to no end, Douglass runs away, finding shelter in the shop of his master. He pleads his case, stating the danger of being with Covey: “I should live with but to die with him; that Covey would surely kill me..” (p. 52). However, this plea falls on deaf ears, as his master dismisses the notion and even threatens to whip Douglass if he doesn’t return to Covey. As a result of the “slaves are less than human” attitude, the slave’s opinions are, by default, considered invalid. This incorrect pigeon-holing acts as an obstruction between the acknowledgement and solving of the problem, an idea that is aptly exemplified by Douglass in this interaction with his