As for Frederick Douglass, he was nothing short of brilliant. His speeches were powerful and his writing was extraordinarily skillful, especially given the fact that he was born a slave and taught himself much of what he knew. His narrative is polished and at times understated, which actually adds power to what he says. Because when a reader goes through the Narrative from the Life of Frederick Douglass that reader knows ahead of time he or she is reading something written by a famous African-American who was a slave. The power in the narrative is established in terms of culture and history. But add to that the power of the writing, and Frederick's work takes on an even more dramatic tone.

He explains in relatively calm narrative that he has seen an overseer named "Mr. Plummer...cut and slash the women's heads..." And how he knew that his master Anthony to...
[ View Full Essay]