Frederick Douglass Hyperbole

Frederick Douglass fights to build the opposition to slavery in his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by presenting anecdotal proof to appeal to Christians living in the northern United States during the nineteenth century. In order to dispel the false popular belief that African Americans deserve to spend their lives in bondage and are better taken care of as a result of this imprisonment, Douglass relives blood curdling memories in his narrative. He presents the most powerful of his experiences, those which most prominently define the cruel nature of slavery in his mind, in the second chapter of his book in order to demonstrate that slaves are not treated well, nor are they content. In chapter two, Douglass’ description

Severe. Douglass describes Mr. Severe as a profane and barbaric man who takes pleasure in whipping slave women, often in front of their own crying children. Even his words terrified the slaves on his plantation: “It was enough to chill the blood and stiffen the hair of an ordinary man to hear him talk” (9). Here, Douglass deploys hyperbole to demonstrate the fear Mr. Severe’s coarse language invoked among slaves. Though clearly speech cannot cause one’s hair to suddenly stand upright, this hyperbole conveys that Mr. Severe so abuses and relishes the power he has over the slaves on his plantation that one vulgar utterance on his part spurs terror among all those that work under him. In fact, Mr. Severe bears such a terrifying and oppressive presence in the life of Douglass and his fellow slaves that when he dies, the slaves regard his death “as the result of a merciful providence” (10). Referring to Mr. Severe’s death as a miraculous act of God, Douglass likens his overseer to a demon from which a merciful deity seeks to spare his children, an image which brands Mr. Severe as the epitome of inhumanity. In addition, this comparison further extends the ongoing metaphor in the narrative which