Frederick Douglass Argumentative Essay

Frederick Douglass also writes about how slavery can be evil towards the slaves. The slaves are treated less like people and more like animals because of the evils of slavery. Douglass explains how every slave is subjected to this punishment of corrupt slaveholders by writing, “Every city slaveholder is anxious to have it known of him, that he feeds his slaves well; and it is due to them to say, that most of them do give their slaves enough to eat. There are, however, some painful exceptions to this rule” (21; ch. 6). Douglass’s use of the words “anxious” and “painful” show how important it is for the slaveholder to be thought of as a good owner and how terrible it is when they aren’t. In fact, being a slave in the city was thought to be better …show more content…
Even though these two slaves lived in the city and were expected to have a “better” life, they were even more ruined than slaves Douglass previously described. Because of how the slaveholders were consumed with power and evil, slaves got severely punished due to the effects of slavery on them. Douglass comments, “His heart must be harder than stone, that could look upon these unmoved. The head, neck, and shoulders of Mary were literally cut to pieces” (21; ch. 6). Douglass uses a hyperbole here to describe Mary and Henrietta’s master. Obviously, his heart is not harder than stone, but the way he abused his slaves made Douglass feel otherwise. And, worse, the master did not seem to care that he was ruining his slaves and continued to let slavery take over him. Douglass’s description of Mary’s wounds prove how slaves were wrongfully mistreated and how far the master’s went. This flood of emotion from Douglass conveys how the evils of slavery affected the slaves through their master’s power and allows the reader to develop a feeling of remorse towards the

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