Frederick Douglass talks about the struggles he had as a young slave boy; for example, when he was torn apart from his mother when he was the age of just seven years old. He was devastated when he knew that he was never going to see his mother ever again, scared and being sent away to a plantation with other slaves was extremely difficult to go through as a child, especially because he was one of the younger slaves which means he could not work at all until he was older. This was leading Douglass into getting a big audience in his narrative, talking about his different struggles and challenges he had to face while he was a slave during his childhood.
In his narrative, Frederick Douglass uses the rhetorical appeal pathos to persuade his audience to show that he is trying to take action against slavery. In Chapter 11, Douglass says “The truth was, I felt like a slave, and the idea of speaking to white people weighed me down.” (Douglass 153). Douglass says that slavery is a thief, he says, and the fruits of slave labor are enjoyed only by slaveholders. He also remembers that Hugh Auld was even disappointed that he failed to bring as much as Hugh expected. This is why Douglass explained…show more content… Auld was so happy to see Douglass and welcomed him into their home. Mrs. Auld soon started teaching him how to write a few words and the ABC’s. However, Mr. Auld found out he wasn’t allowed to be taught lessons anymore. “I suffered more anxiety than most of my fellow slaves. I had known what it was to be kindly treated; they had known nothing of the kind” (Douglass 75). Douglass is explaining here that he suffered from anxiety more than other slaves in his narrative; he knows the two kinds of masters while the other slaves were accustomed to only the rude masters. He is saying that when he had the Aulds, they were being so kind and showed respect to him, but that did not end well because Mrs. Aulds mood started to change towards
