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Comparing Frederick Douglass and Charles Langston
Throughout America’s history, many influential and historical figures have given significant speeches to impact views of the people. For example, Frederick Douglass and Charles Langston are powerful speakers who try to convince the white community that slavery should be abolished. Of the two distinctive speakers, Douglass is more persuasive and outspoken than Langston. As a former slave, Douglass uses his tragic experiences to bring life and passion into his words. While Langston addresses his audience in a mild manner, Douglass seems to be more adamant and strong in his beliefs and views. Even though they approach their audiences differently, both touch upon a few similar topics. Both speakers discuss: law, religion, and common humanity to support and strengthen their speeches.
Douglass and Langston point out that the laws of the U.S. are unfair and do not serve justice. Though both men bring up similar ideas, Douglass is the one who exudes his strong feelings of fury and discontent. He argues that black men are punished more severely for the same crimes that white men commit. Douglass says, “Slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment.” (217). He also brings up the fact that the law says black men are not allowed to be educated. “It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, unde...
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...angston states that all free men were, “ trembling alike for their safety, because they well knew their fate, should those men-hunters get their hands on them.” (233).
Langston and Douglass are both zealous in their efforts to help abolish slavery. However, Douglass seems to word his disturbing thoughts and feelings in a better format.
He brings the audience into the captivity and horrors of slavery. Being of a more passive nature, Langston does not get his point across to the same degree. Douglass’ rhetorical strategy is obvious more persuasive and effective than that of Langston’s.
Bibliography:
Douglass, Fredrick. “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” Negotiating Difference,
Bedford Books: New York. 1996. pg.208-230
Langston, Charles. “Address to the Court.” Negotiating Difference, Bedford Books:
New York. 1996. pg.232-238.
I believe both clips would be a thorough way to help people understand the horrors of slavery. Clip 2 describes Douglass's two masters Captain Anthony and his overseer Mr. Plummer. Douglass states that Captain Anthony, "He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave." (Clip 2) His overseer Mr. Plummer "was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster" (Clip 2) he was known to have cut and slash women's head so horribly that even the Master, the cruel man that he was, would at times be so outraged at his cruelty that he would threaten to whip him. They were terrible to their slaves and what they would do to them, Aunt Hester being an example. During
After suffering the overwhelming ferociousness and inhumanity of being a slave for over two decades , a black man by the name of Fredrick Douglass fled from enslavement and began to make a concerted effort to advance himself as a human being. Combating many obstacles and resisting numerous temptations, Douglass worked assiduously to develop into a knowledgeable gentleman rather than the involuntary alternative of being an unenlightened slave. In doing so, Douglass successfully immerged as one of the Civil War era’s most prominent antislavery orators. From his first major public speech at the age of 23, Douglass became widely renowned as a premier spokesperson for Black slaves and the movement for the abolition of slavery. In one of Douglass’ most distinguished speeches, “The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro,” he uses the intermittent occasion of speaking on behalf of African Americans to a multitude of White Americans to outline arguments against slavery. In that very speech, Douglass made it clear that, like countless African Americans during this time period,
Education is a privilege. The knowledge gained through education enables an individual’s potential to be optimally utilized owing to training of the human mind, and enlarge their view over the world. Both “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass himself and “Old Times on the Mississippi” by Mark Twain explore the idea of education. The two autobiographies are extremely different; one was written by a former slave, while the other was written by a white man. Hence, it is to be expected that both men had had different motivations to get an education, and different processes of acquiring education. Their results of education, however, were fairly similar.
From before the country’s conception to the war that divided it and the fallout that abolished it, slavery has been heavily engrained in the American society. From poor white yeoman farmers, to Northern abolitionist, to Southern gentry, and apathetic northerners slavery transformed the way people viewed both their life and liberty. To truly understand the impact that slavery has had on American society one has to look no further than those who have experienced them firsthand. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and advocate for the abolitionist, is on such person. Douglass was a living contradiction to American society during his time. He was an African-American man, self-taught, knowledgeable, well-spoken, and a robust writer. Douglass displayed a level of skill that few of his people at the time could acquire. With his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, Douglass captivated the people of his time with his firsthand accounts into the horror and brutality that is the institution of slavery.
The vivid feeling of relief and elation as a result of escaping the clutches of slavery is evident from the analogies and figurative language Douglass uses in the beginning of the passage. Douglass states he struggled to express exactly what significance freedom in the North had on his immediate mental state. However, he manages to use words such as “highest excitement” to present the level of relief he acquired from escaping, giving a connotation of obvious unlimited happiness. He further described such a dynamic feeling to his audience by comparing it to the feeling an “. . . unarmed mariner [receives] when is rescued by a friendly man-of-war from the pursuit of a pirate.”
On July 5th of 1852, the Ladies Antislavery Society of Rochester requested that emancipated slave, Fredrick Douglass, speak for their celebration of the United States’ national independence. Douglass accepted this request and presented a powerful speech that explained and argued his true beliefs and feelings concerning this event. He considered their decision to request him as a speaker on that day to be a mockery of his past and of the ongoing status of blacks as slaves in America at the time. Nevertheless, Douglass skillfully constructed his speech utilizing various methods that forced his audience to take him seriously and think twice about the issue of slavery in America. His passion about the subject, his ability to captivate his audience, and his persuasive skills combine to form a clearly effective speech that continues to be studied to this day. Douglass warmed up his audience by commending the moral and patriotic excellence of their forefathers. He then delivered the argument of his speech which cleverly criticized the hypocrisy of the institution of slavery and those who tolerated or supported it. Yet, to conclude his speech, Douglass asserts that there is still hope for the young nation so as not to leave the audience completely discouraged. The way in which Douglass constructed and delivered this speech had a lasting impact and left his audience with an effectively argued point to consider.
In this final research analysis, I will be doing a comparison between the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” and the “Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” to show how both Douglass and Rowlandson use a great deal of person strength and faith in God to endure their life and ultimately gain their freedom.
Slaveholders are able to perpetuate the existence of slavery through the ignorance of their slaves. Keeping a slave ignorant about their date of birth, their paternity, as well as their capability to read and write, enables slaveholders to retain unchallenged control over the slave. Douglass first learns of this troubling reality accidentally from his Master, Thomas Auld, when Auld says to his wife, “If you teach that nigger (speaking of Douglass) how to read, there would be no keeping him. I...
Speeches are a method of persuading people to do something. For Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, their speeches were to bring equality for the people of color. However, their approaches are different. Consequently, the effects may be different. An example of their contrasting differences is a speech from each, King’s “I Have a Dream” and X’s “The Black Revolution”. Their speeches used pathos, a central metaphor, and a warning, but was presented differently.
Frederick Douglass uses the rhetorical appeal, ethos, in two specific ways: to provide the credence of his statements and to identify himself to the reader. Douglass uses his writing skills to provide a familiar perception to which his readers are accustomed. He does not provide exact dates to accompany his story, because slaves back then were kept ignorant, as Douglass states, “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it” (Douglass 19). Our culture thrives on important dates such as, someone’s birthday, a holiday, or an anniversary, etc., and Douglass was blind to all of these events. He identifies himself as a normal human being, when in fact, he has had what seems like to us, a completely
...y afraid at first but finds out that there are many ex-slaves willing to take a stand and risk their lives to help their own. Douglass realizes that with the help from the ex-slaves he could also help his fellow slaves.
In using descriptions of slave life, ironic situations, and general frankness, Douglass is appealing to the emotions of his audience. Douglass is letting people know of the terrors of slavery by touching their emotions. He gets them motivated by being interesting and then builds upon this by describing his life in simple terms that all humans can relate to.
America, a land with shimmering soil where golden dust flew and a days rain of money could last you through eternity. Come, You Will make it in America. That was the common theme of those who would remove to America. It is the common hymn, the classic American rags-to-riches myth, and writers such as Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass had successfully embraced it in their works.Franklin and Douglass are two writers who have quite symmetrical styles and imitative chronology of events in their life narratives.
While writing about the dehumanizing nature of slavery, Douglass eloquently and efficiently re-humanize African Americans. This is most evident throughout the work as a whole, yet specific parts can be used as examples of his artistic control of the English language. From the beginning of the novel, Douglass’ vocabulary is noteworthy with his use of words such as “intimation […] odiousness […] ordained.” This more advanced vocabulary is scattered throughout the narrative, and is a testament to Douglass’ education level. In conjunction with his vocabulary, Douglass often employed a complex syntax which shows his ability to manipulate the English language. This can be seen in Douglass’ self-description of preferring to be “true to [himself], even at the hazard of incurring ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur [his] own abhorrence.” This is significant because it proves that Douglass can not only simply read and write, but he has actually obtained a mastery of reading and writing. This is a highly humanizing trait because it equates him in education level to that of the stereotypical white man, and how could one deny that the white man is human because of his greater education? It is primarily the difference in education that separates the free from the slaves, and Douglass is able to bridge this gap as a pioneer of the
Fredrick Douglass focuses on both ethos and pathos when comes to persuasion. The most powerful example of ethos takes place in chapter one when he says he does not know his birthday, unlike white civilians. Opening with this information tells readers that he can be trusted because of his direct personal experience. Douglass provokes reader’s emotion with use of language in a way that helps audiences empathize with him. For example, he one of his masters have hired a man to have sex and reproduce with a slave woman for profit. He having to live with that and the vivid description shows a lot of