“She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities.” (VII) In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the former slave describes how a person so easily changes because of the influence of slavery. In this quotation, he draws up a Biblical parallel, establishing his credibility to the audience. The wife of Mr. Giles Hick, one of Douglass’ masters, had been alarmingly genuine and caring when she had first met Douglass. “And here I saw what I had never seen before: It was a white face beaming with the most kindly emotion…” (V). Unfortunately for Douglass, though, the power she had over him soon corrupted her. By dehumanizing Douglass and her other slaves, she unintentionally dehumanizes herself. This theme of dehumanization is a vital motif Douglass stresses in his text. Throughout his autobiography, Frederick Douglass relies on various syntactical devices like alliteration, asyndeton, and metaphors to assert his point that slavery not only causes the dehumanization of slaves, but that of slave-owners as well.
The very nature of slavery includes a process in which a human being is unwittingly morphed into an object that exists solely for the labor he can perform. Masters treat their slaves in an inhumane way so that they will obey whatever they tell them to do. Douglass first sees this sort of treatment with his own family: “an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood.” (I) Her master beats Douglass’ own aunt as if she were a rag doll, right in front of him, on more than one occasion. The details from this quotation alone allow Douglass to clearly show that his masters haunted him with these horrific scenes at such a young age. His piercing diction, seen in phrases like “tie up to a joist”, and “literally covered with blood” additionally appeals to the emotion of his audience, as he challenges readers to put themselves into his situation.
Another example of the dehumanization of slaves appears in the second chapter, where Frederick Douglass states, “His death was regarded by the slaves as the result of a merciful providence.” This statement is ironic because of what is being compared: death and a “merciful providence”, a gift from God. Douglass uses this statement to show the way that slaves feel towards their masters is enormously far off from how humans not enslaved would have viewed the death of this man. However, slaves were not the only ones who were desensitized in this way by slavery, their masters, the trade equally affected their masters as well.
Because of the harsh and inhumane ways they treated their slaves, slaveholders acted toward their slaves in such cruel manners that their behavior can be seen as unnatural, or inhuman. “a young girl between fifteen and sixteen years of age, mangling her person in the most horrible manner, breaking her nose and breastbone with a stick, so that the poor girl expired in a few hours afterward.” (IV). Clearly, the actions described in this quotation from the narrative are not normal human behaviors. Here, Douglass uses asyndeton, because this rhetorical device shows the ongoing horror Douglass experienced not only in this specific situation, but all throughout his life as a slave. The graphic diction, “mangling”, “in a most horrible manner”, and “breaking her nose and breastbone with a stick”, also elicits an emotional response from his audience. This story is evidently appealing to the readers’ feelings.
Earlier on, in Chapter Four, Douglass had described the presence of one of his slave owners as he would watch his slaves work in the fields. “His presence was painful; his eyes flashed confusion; and seldom was his sharp, shrill voice heard, without producing horror and trembling in their ranks.” (IV). Douglass points out that despite his master’s silence, his very presence was painful for him and his fellow slaves. Douglass also utilizes alliteration, found twice in this quote: in the words “presence,” “painful,” and “producing,” and the words “seldom,” “sharp,” and “shrill”.
At the same time that slave-owners diminish the human qualities of their slaves, they are altering their own minds to view humans not as humans, but as tools from which they can gain a desired end. When they begin to treat their slaves as animals, or machines, they affect their slaves and themselves. Frederick Douglass is able to display this idea throughout his novel with the uses of various literary techniques and rhetorical devices. Tugging at the heartstrings of his audience, his powerful diction demands emotional responses of shock and empathy from readers. This was his main purpose, to tell his story amid spreading the word that slavery can never happen again. Although slaves had to endure the atrocious physical effects of slavery, Frederick Douglass demonstrates that both slaves and their masters suffer from the psychological effects.