Douglass Persuasion

After reading this article, I have now gotten an idea of what pathos, ethos, and logos are, and I am now more familiar with the art of persuasion. Furthermore, I have been able to spot these techniques in my readings, including that of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

Franklin Douglass' memoir is filled with pathos. For instance, a line which conveys this technique perfectly is: "The poor man was then informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment's warning, he was snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than death." If you are not familiar with pathos, I'll elaborate why this qualifies as it. Pathos is essentially pulling on heart strings, searching for sympathy. The way Douglass described the other slave's arrest was such that made the reader feel sympathy towards him.

Ethos is the "gut" of rhetoric. It relies on reputation and the image of something unto the audience, and uses both as persuasive tools. Franklin Douglass doesn't use this device as readily as pathos, but it is still fairly easy to find examples. It is especially easy to find ethos when Douglass describes the masters' superiority, like in, "Indeed, it is not uncommon for slaves even to fall out and quarrel among themselves about the relative goodness of their masters, each contending for the superior goodness of his own over that of the others." This plays with the reputation of the masters, specifically in the slaves eyes, and therefore is an example of ethos.

Finally, logos, the brain rhetoric, is nowhere near as abundant as the other two devices in the book. However, Douglass does use logos to speak about state law: "I speak advisedly when I say this,-that killing a slave, or any coloured person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community." Here, Douglass' use of facts ensures that this is an example of logos. Douglass is not trying to tug on the hearts of the audience, nor is he relying on te reputation of anyone, he is simply stating facts to make a point.