Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

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"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe" said Frederick Douglass on how in a society where the a group of people alienates another group of people, neither parties will benefit. Justice and freedom are human rights that are required to live a fulfilling and happy life, from these rights, stem trust, love, peace, and equality. Once those are taken away then there is no more equality or fairness among men and the society becomes flawed and unsafe. Under the institution of slavery, human beings were stripped of their basic human rights in order to benefit…show more content…
Douglass also uses pathos to talk about the slaveholder and expose how the slaveholder's were once human but now corrupt. Mrs. Hamilton, a slaveholder in Baltimore is a great example of a now corrupted slaveholder who finds joy in abusing her slave. Mrs. Hamilton is a slaveholder in the city which is uncommon and she has two young slaves that are girls that she beats and also starves. While the two slaves walk around doing their work, Mrs. Hamilton sits in a chair and whips them and abuses them, there is not a moment that passes without them getting abused, “The girls seldom passed her without her saying, “Move faster, you black gip!” at the same time giving them a blow with the cowskin over the head or shoulders, often drawing the blood”(Douglass 21). This is an example for an appeal towards pathos because Douglass decides to give an example of two young African-American girls getting beaten and hurt instead of an adult African-American. This quote also sheds light on the brutality of slave holders for no apparent reason except that they have the power and the slaves don't. Given background on what Mrs. Hamilton had done to her slaves, the audience starts to wonder the reason for actions and also wonder what she might have been like before she owned slaves, if she was a more human person. Douglass's use of pathos has proved the corruption of slaveholders and also the barbarization of slaves because of
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