Showing posts with label Farid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farid. Show all posts

Friday, December 9, 2016

Persuasive Paper: Open Letter to US Electoral College

Farid Ghamsari
English 306
Dr. Brown
12/8/2016
An Open Letter to the US Electoral College
To The Members of the United States Electoral College,
            I am a 21-year-old student at the University of Arizona. I was born in Austria, but moved the United States shortly after. My parent’s and I obtained our citizenships as early as possible, and have been proud, patriotic citizens of the United States ever since. I have always been able to trust in our country and believe that its leadership was on the path towards’ helping its citizens, doing what it believed to be best for the people, even if it was against my own personal beliefs. It is with this in mind that I now write to all of you. On November 11, Donald Trump won the national election and is currently President-Elect, soon to become the President of the United States. This, as a citizen of the United States, is troubling to me for a number of reasons. Donald Trump, over the past several months, seems to have proven himself time and time again as unfit to be President. Since his victory, his transition has already repeatedly been putting US relations and security at risk through a number of ill-advised actions and inactions and has a number of conflicts of interest which should disqualify him from being the President. I will elaborate on all of these accusations, in order to present to you why Donald Trump cannot be allowed to be President.
First, Donald Trump and his presidency present a clear threat to US relations and National Security.  On November 23rd, The Washington Post published an article describing that since his victory 2-weeks prior, Donald Trump had only received 2 classified intelligence briefings (Miller). These briefings contain information from each of the US intelligence agencies and contain the most important, highly classified information regarding the nation’s security and military projects abroad. While it is not unprecedented for a President-Elect to forgo some of these briefings, the grand majority of President-Elects generally opt for daily briefings after receiving their first (Miller). Since Donald Trump has no foreign policy or relations experience, this is particularly disturbing. He is ignoring these briefings, claiming that he is receiving all of the information he needs through casual phone calls with other world leaders. This is absolutely ridiculous. There could be terrorist attacks or insurgencies that he would be wholly unaware of. His behavior cannot be condoned for someone who is going to be Commander in Chief and have his hands on the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. It is unclear whether he realizes the scope and importance of his position or simply doesn’t care.
In addition, Donald Trump has already made a number of claims which have strained relations with a number of other countries. During his candidacy, he made a number of memorable disparaging remarks towards other nations such as China and Mexico, saying that Mexico was sending us “Robbers and Rapists” and that climate Change was a hoax created by the Chinese to ruin the US economy.  Shortly after Donald Trump’s victory, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zhenmin retorted to trump that it was US President’s Ronald Raegan and George H.W. Bush that started the global warming conversation in the late 80’s and that they would not tolerate such slander (Scherer). Donald Trump is damaging the US reputation minute by minute and painfully straining relations which have taken decades to build. He has further angered the Chinese by accepting a phone call from the President of Taiwan (Wong). This breaks decades of diplomatic protocol with the Chinese by not honoring the One-China agreement, in which the US does not recognize Taiwan as its own country, but simply a Chinese territory in revolt (Wong). This agreement is a centerpiece of US-Chinese relations and ignoring this has deeply concerned Chinese and World politicians alike. China is currently one of the largest and strongest countries in the world and Donald Trump is quickly turning them into an enemy. All of these things have occurred before Donald Trump has even taken office. I genuinely fear for our countries security when he becomes the commander in chief. He is unable to take the weight of his actions seriously and is putting the entire country’s security at stake. There is no place for Donald Trump’s form of ignorance of geopolitics in the global community.
If it wasn’t enough that Donald Trump is already threating US security and relations, he seems to have an alarmingly large number of ties to foreign governments and companies. While we all know that it was one of the hot topics of the debates, it is still monumentally important that Donald Trump has not released his tax returns. It is not only unprecedented, but it is wildly dangerous. Those tax returns would let the American people know whether or not he was financially tied to foreign governments and agencies. His refusal to release them is almost damning evidence on its own. He is almost definitely hiding something and if he does in fact have foreign connections, these would present huge conflicts of interest for the President. The President of the United States should have only one debt to pay, his service to the American people. A President with debts to pay to other countries or influential people would be wildly irresponsible and could not be trusted to keep the American People in the forefront of his decisions.
Additionally, Mr. Trump has not put his company in a blind trust, but instead, will give it to his children, who are also involved in his White House team, presenting yet another conflict of interest. How can we know that he won’t be using the US government to simply line his and his children’s own pockets once he becomes President? With his previous actions, there is no reason to believe that he will not be making decisions to champion his own interests.  Donald Trump’s connections clearly paint him to be unfit to be president, encumbered by his numerous interests abroad, and the idea that he could still become president, while still maintaining all of these connections is absolutely outrageous.
The National Election is over, but Donald Trump has not been sworn into office quite yet. The Electoral College still has to finalize the vote on December 19th. I am writing to you, the members of the Electoral College, to implore you to deliberate on your duty to the United States as a member of the Electoral College. While you are pledged to vote for your party, you also have a duty to select a president who you believe will do properly and successfully lead the nation forward. Donald Trump is clearly proving himself to be an unfit and dangerous president. One who will make a mockery of the institutions and achievements of the United States of America and could not be trusted to promote the American people’s interests. For these reasons, you as the members of the electoral college have a duty vote against him. I’m sure many of you have already deliberated voting against him, but are not sure if you should due to the precedent it would create, but remember that Donald Trump did not even win the popular vote. Hilary Clinton has now won it by over 2.5 million votes. He does not represent the voters of America and many feel that he has already produced intense divisions in the country, with hate crimes drastically on the rise. On December 19th, you will be the final obstacle between Donald Trump, and the White House. He strikes fear into the hearts of many American’s who fear war with other countries, discrimination here in the US, and more economic downfalls. Donald Trump’s presidency would exacerbate every problem faced the US today and needs to be stopped before it begins. Please, don’t vote for Donald Trump.  
Essay: 1290 Words.

Purpose of Conclusion: The purpose of my conclusion is to bring together finalize the goal of the letter. It is made to present the dangers of Donald Trump in a new way and to sway the Electoral college to vote against him by personalizing and making intimate the problems I discussed earlier. I felt that this would be the strongest way to persuade the electoral college to show them that it would be in everyone’s best interest to vote against Donald Trump.

Character Paragraph’s, First and Fourth Paragraphs
First: 
The Purpose of the Paragraph is to open to the Electoral College who I am, and why my word should be listened to at all as well as then opening my description and request from them.
Main Characters: My Parent’s and I, Donald Trump, Donald Trump’s Victory, Donald Trump’s Presidency.
This Paragraph moves from using focused topic strings to chained topic stings halfway through the paragraph, eventually becoming mixed near the end.
Fifth:
The Purpose: To elaborate on the conflict of interest of his company and his children, which crush the possibility that he could be a president without ulterior motives.
Main Characters: Donald Trump, his children, and his connections.
The Paragraph uses a chained topic string, using the stress of the previous sentence as the topic of the next sentence.




Saturday, December 3, 2016

Final Research Paper: The Abolitionist Movement

Farid Ghamsari
Dr. Stephanie Brown
English 306
11/2/2016
The Significance of the Black Abolitionist Identity
 in the American Abolitionist Movement

            The Abolitionist Movement in the United States is a movement that many are familiar with. It called for the complete and immediate abolishment of slavery in the United States. It was an intense and significant movement which grew larger and larger until it became one of the major factors leading up to the civil war, after which, the movement ended, having achieved its goal of abolishing slavery throughout the United States. While the general history of the Abolitionist movement is relatively common knowledge, the path through which the identities that made up the movement is much less known. For most of the history of the United States, historians have publicized the idea that the Abolitionist Movement was most intensely fought by Whites, creating the idea of “The White Liberators”. However, in recent decades, historians have gone back to the events of the movement and have focused on the immensely significant role that Blacks had in their own liberation. These recent publications will show that The Abolitionist Movement was a large culmination of several independent groups with differing identities and ideals that led them to fight for the movement. This essay will primarily focus on the two largest and most consequential groups in the movement, the White Immediatists and the Black Abolitionists.  First, the essay will present a comprehensive background of the relevant historical information necessary to understand how slavery and the Abolitionist movement both began and developed in the United States. Here it will also go into detail about one Black Abolitionist leader in particular who helped champion the Black Abolitionist identity through his life and work. Next, it will elaborate on the two aforementioned identities and how each developed and the role that each played in the Abolitionist Movement, focusing on the significance of the Black Abolitionists in changing the rhetoric of the Movement, and in doing so, making it stronger. Finally, the essay will discuss and analyze an artifact from the movement which exemplifies the significance of the Black Abolitionists and portrays the how the new Black Abolitionist Identity introduced stronger and more impactful rhetoric to the movement.
            Before the Abolitionist movement, the practice of slavery was relatively ubiquitous throughout the United States. Especially in the South, there was a significant need for cheap labor and slavery quickly became a relatively prevalent practice. Before the US became an independent nation, there were only relatively small groups, such as the Quakers, that did not practice slavery, believing that it was immoral and a violation of human brotherhood (Ferrell 7). Over time, these small groups eventually moved from simply not practicing slavery themselves, to open opposition of it, pushing for it to stop all throughout the United States. The American Abolitionist Movement was defined as the movement to immediately and completely Abolish Slavery throughout the United States.
The movement really began in 1776, just before the United States gained its independence. Up until this time, most if not all states, were fairly accepting of the practice of slavery, but groups which found it morally irreprehensible were constantly growing larger and more adamant about the opposition to it. These groups, mostly present in the North of the US, grew more powerful during this time and slavery slowly lost favor. Over the next 50-60 years, the northern states slowly began introducing legislature which first banned slave trade, and then slavery altogether. By the 1820’s most northern states had all but abolished slavery in the north. (Ferrell 28).
            Slavery in the South was a much more engrained practice however. In the North, slavery had been becoming a practice of convenience over time, but in the South, slavery was needed to work plantations. By using slavery, plantation owners could make significantly more money due to not needing to pay wages for the work. The drive for increased production, profit, and wealth was exceedingly powerful and for the most part trumped morality in the South. In addition, the disjointed nature of the south, which would have great stretches of land between plantations, also hindered the spreading of ideas. The South strongly resisted the abolitionist movement for these reasons and actively fought it on a number of occasions with laws such as the Fugitive Slave Law. In 1793, the law was passed which forced northern states to return runaway slaves to the south. (Ferrell 27). For Southern Slave Owners, an end to slavery would essentially be an end to their entire way of life, completely derailing their livelihoods. For this reason, it is easy to see why Southerners would want to resist the ideals of the Abolitionist Movement as strongly as they did.
However, even after slavery was condemned in the North, free Blacks were actually not significantly better off than the slaves who lived in the south. During this time, in the North, there was still severe discrimination and racism that existed towards free Blacks (Litwack). Blacks in the North had to fight very similar battles to those fought in the south. In the 1820’s, The Abolitionist Movement in the North gradually became a mission for civil rights for all free men living in the United States in addition to its goals to abolish slavery. It is important to note that this mostly applied to black men and not women, who still did not obtain equal civil rights until much later in the US’s history. The Abolitionist movement and its goals was significantly assisted by new several abolitionist newspapers such as The Liberator, started and written by William Lloyd Garrison, an important white leader in the Abolitionist Movement (Shortell).
By the 1830’s, The Liberator, along with several other newspapers, launched a renewed Abolitionist campaign in the North, focused on complete racial equality, and began launching a more focused campaign to end slavery in the south. (Stewart). The South strongly resisted these campaigns, unwilling to give up their slaves for any reason that couldn’t trump their financial successes. These newspapers along with Black leaders led to a high point of turmoil in the North during the 1830’s and 40’s. During this period, even Northern Whites who had freed their slaves were worried about a resulting race war if the Abolitionist Rhetoric continued in the way that it was. This period of time is known as the Antebellum Period of the Abolitionist movement and is considered the most radical period of the movement, pushing for complete racial equality and “respectability” for African Americans. This Antebellum period can be considered at the crisis of the Abolitionist Movement under Griffin’s framework for describing political protests. (Griffin)
            White newspapers had a large and significant impact on the movement, helping it expand and grow beyond what its capabilities would be without them. However, Black Abolitionists also had a significant impact throughout the movement, eventually culminating in the Black Abolitionist Identity during the Antebellum period. Since the beginning of the Abolitionist Movement in the US, Blacks were actively fighting slavery in a way which pushed it to its limits before it was completely abolished in each area. Examples of this have been seen in many ways throughout the different areas of the US. In Massachusetts, back in 1776, Black slaves were able to run from their owners, and once they had escaped, they would be considered free by Massachusetts law. At this point, they would then return and lawfully emancipate the rest of the slaves who were still residing with the owner (Sinha). In Vermont, Black Abolitionists were able to constitutionally institute universal male suffrage. From there they were able to vote on the issue of slavery, and with the large number of Black voters, were able to condemn it (Sinha). Black leaders had lasting impacts on the initial abolition of slavery in the North, but soon after slavery was abolished in these areas, the Black Abolitionists lost steam after having been freed and moved into the background of the Abolitionist Movement. It was only in the 1830’s and 40’s when free black men became a strong source of leadership. This was due to many prior slaves becoming strong writers and orators who spread abolitionism to other African Americans in a way that no white Abolitionist could have. They helped make abolition an African American cause and movement which forcefully thrust the movement forward. Black leaders such as Henry Garnet, Henry Bibb, and Fredrick Douglass championed the Black Abolitionist cause and spread the ideals with a new found zeal and strength. (Harold 118).
Fredrick Douglass was an African American who had been born a slave in Maryland. For many years, he was beaten daily by his owners until he was hired to another slave owner who treated him slightly better. (Ferrell 122). Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 and moved to the North. There, he began reading The Liberator and was greatly inspired by William Lloyd Garrison. Soon after, Douglass wrote his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass” which contained a slave narrative that became wildly popular as an insight into the life of a slave. Douglass gained much acclaim and became a dominant figure in the Abolitionist Movement. He was such a strong orator and writer that many found it hard to believe that he had ever been a slave. During his life, he wrote several more influential works such as “My Bondage and My Freedom” (Chaney 17), and gave numerous influential speeches. He is remembered for establishing different themes throughout his writing to depict different ideas such as Black-Heroism and the equality of men by being men. One of the most influential speeches he gave was of the Creole slave ship revolt, in which a black leader, Madison Washington, led 19 slaves in a successful revolt against their captives while killing only one crew member. They redirected the ship to Britain where the all of the 135 slaves aboard were declared free (Bernier). His speeches and writings personalized the atrocities of slavery and brought them onto a public scale. The works allowed White people to see how evil slavery could be, and they let slaves see how they could begin to champion their own freedom as Douglass and those he spoke of had done (Davis).  Other Southern Black Liberators began writing and an increasing force grew from their collective identity as more slaves began to understand their own power to revolt and free themselves. (Davis)
Fredrick Douglass entered the protest at a very critical point. His rhetoric changed the conversation and role of Abolitionism. It shifted from being a predominantly white-led movement, as shown by William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator, to one primarily led by free Black leaders. He also helped in creating a following and support for the movement in both free and enslaved blacks, which pushed the movement to a breaking point. The following section of this essay will explore in more depth, the rhetoric and individual identities involved in the movement as it rhetorically shifted from White Abolitionism to Black Abolitionism in the movement. It will also further explore how Frederick Douglass acted as a key figure in this shift as an embodiment of the Black Abolitionist Identity.
            From its beginnings, the Abolitionist Movement was primarily led by people known as White Immediatists. The Immediatists were present since the beginnings of slavery in the US and saw their beginnings in small groups such as The Quakers. The Immediatists were those who believed that slavery should be condemned because they saw it as a heinous crime to God and American Ideals (Stewart 6). These Immediatists saw emancipation as the only way to rid America of the injustices of the slavery and reconcile the US with God, and they called for the immediate and complete abolishment of slavery all over the US. (Stewart 7). This identity while being strong and influential, was a fairly small one. The percentage of the population in the North that consisted of these religiously moral Immediatists was relatively minimal, despite the speed with which their messages spread in the North. William Lloyd Garrison was initially an Immediatist and with the use of his newspaper The Liberator he was able to spread this message quickly and broadly. The Immediatists identity saw its strongest era in the early 1830’s. At this point in time, many others joined the Immediatists under the idea that slavery was morally irreprehensible. These newcomers were less interested in its immorality in the face of God, but instead simply felt that the practice was immoral and should be abolished on that ground alone (Stewart 7).
As mentioned previously, the south resisted the ideals of the Immediatists strongly. The south was deeply racist and saw slaves as property rather than human individuals. This helped them ignore the ideals of the Immediatists as unjustified and pointless. There were few Southern Abolitionists prior to the 1830’s and these people were often attacked or harassed by pro-slavery extremists (Harrold 18). For this reason in addition to those expressed earlier in the paper, the spreading of information and Abolitionist ideals was slow to spread in the south. To southerners, the economy held by slavery was significantly more important and valuable than the values that white Immediatists seemed to be preaching. The south considered Northern Immediatists to be fanatical and unrealistic, asking Southern Slave owners to simply give up their largest and most valuable investments (Harrold 15). These Immediatists, while spreading a relatively moral message, were often zealous in their method of doing so. Many Immediatists were followers of “William Lloyd Garrison’s radical brand of abolitionism, [and] became infamous for breaking up services in churches [and other venues] that barred antislavery meetings,” (Olson).  Though it seems that the Immediatists had good intentions, their methods through which they tried to achieve emancipation were overly radical and disrespectful. This is one issue that kept Southern leaders from wanting to even think about emancipating their slaves. The southerners were outraged by the ways Immediatists tried to push their agenda and in many ways dug themselves in deeper into their Pro-slavery ideals due to the Immediatists. (Stewart 12).
                The Immediatists radicalism and zealotry caused them to fail in many regards in their protest. Their methods failed to develop a strong identity in the North and were immensely counterproductive in the south. This failure of the White Immediatists to can be accurately described through an article written by James Jasper. In Jasper’s article “The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions in and around Social Movements”, he articulates the necessity of properly cultivating emotions in a protest, especially one that requires a basis around morality. (Jasper). He articulates that it is important for a protest to develop a proper frame for its participants to align with. By this, a frame is meant to represent a mindset or collective of ideas behind which members of a particular protest can feel a part of, and essentially align to its frame. For this protest, it was important for the Immediatists of the North to create an Injustice Frame around slavery in the south. An injustice frame be considered a “way of viewing a situation or condition that expresses indignation or outrage over a perceived injustice”. (Jasper). The act of slavery, while clearly amoral, was not being represented by the Immediatists in a strong enough Injustice Frame for great amounts of society to be outraged and align with the cause. This failure clearly depicts why the White Immediatist Identity had so much opposition and resistance.
                In the early 1840’s however, a new Abolitionist Identity began to arise. This abolitionist identity was that of the Southern Black Abolitionist (Stewart 21). This identity was championed by African American leaders such as Fredrick Douglass, who had previously been slaves, before they went on to be strong African American Abolitionists (Stewart 21). The Black Abolitionist Identity was built by these leaders and slowly grew into the south, attaching the identity to all Black Slaves, who craved their freedom.
This new identity created a pivotal role in the Abolitionist Movement. The Black Abolitionists, rather than calling for the abolishment of slavery, simply due to its immorality, called for equal rights, through the definition of manhood. This expressed the idea that Black men, were clearly men, and experienced manhood in the same way as white men, questioning how the color of a man’s skin could dictate anything. Black Abolitionists were not only fighting slavery, but calling for equal rights in northern society which was still very strongly racist (Shortell). It was at this time that the White Immediatist Newspapers such as The Liberator also began pushing messages of civil rights and total racial equality. The Black Abolitionist identity restructured the rhetoric through which slavery should be addressed, as well as the way in which free African Americans should be treated. This identity was much stronger than the previous Immediatists in that it connected with black individuals in the south who were still enslaved. Many previously enslaved Black writers became leaders of this movement and identity by expressing the plight of the slave through narratives and memoirs as seen in Davis’ book, The Slave Narrative. These narratives and others like them gave insight into the life of the slave and clearly portrayed the injustice’s taking place in the south. One story in the collective tells of how David George, was “’whipped many a time on [his] naked skin’ after seeing his family cruelly abused” (Davis 51). Stories like this personalized the pain and suffering being caused by slavery and made this available not only free white and black people in the North, but also any literate slaves in the South. When Black slaves were able to see one another rise up against the injustices, it made them feel stronger about their own independent identities and more rebellious towards their captors.
The new Black identity, while developing this sense of strength among Black individuals, also created a new rhetoric through which to address the racism that persisted in the North (Bernier). Fredrick Douglass, one of the strongest orators and writers of the Black Abolitionists, can be considered a model and embodiment of the identity, and created many of its defining moments and its rhetoric. In one speech, Douglass argued, “I am here but to urge the right of every man to his own body, to his own hand, and to his own heart” (Bernier). In this, he is arguing that simply by the humanity and manhood of black men, they should have their lives in their own hands, as do all other men. With this, he elicits emotions of rebellion and revolt from Southern slaves, while also softening the hearts of white racists in the North who have tried to dehumanize Black men.
The Black Abolitionist Identity was much more successful in the attacks against slavery than the previous Immediatist Abolitionism. This, in large part, is due to the effect that it had on Southern Slaves. Slaves felt encouraged to run away from their owners, in hope of securing their freedom as their African American Leaders had (Litwack). In many ways, this weakened the South’s hold over their slaves more than any other attempt from the North previously had. The increasing numbers of runaway slaves led to severely heightened tensions between the North and the South, ultimately becoming one of the main factors that led to the Civil War (Litwack).
Once again looking at Jaspers’ discussion of emotions in protests again make it clear as to why this Identity so much more successful in the progression of the movement. Jasper argues several key points to the success of a protest, one being the proper framing of injustice. The new Black Abolitionist Identity, no longer simply framed slavery as amoral and a sin to God, but instead defined it as an injustice to the men who were enslaved. Through the rhetoric of collective manhood for both Blacks and Whites, a collective identity of man was able to be created. With this identity, it became clear that the immoral injustice of slavery was not just a problem for Black men, but also White men too, who were connected in their collective manhood. This rhetoric framed the injustice of slavery in a way in which Black and White men could easily align themselves and feel wholly part of the collective identity.  This connection that was growing between them was easily quantified by the amount of slaves that were able to escape and were hosted by Black and White Northerners (Lamb). Southern slave owners were mostly outraged by the rhetoric and actions of the Black and White Northerners who refused to return the runaway slaves, saying that they were, “’stealing’ under federal law” (Lamb). With this, the Black Abolitionist Identity not only connected all those who wanted the abolishment of slavery under a single emotional frame and collective identity, but it also alienated and enraged the Southern Slave holders. The next portion of this essay will focus on one artifact, The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass which embodied the Black Abolitionist Identity, and discuss how it, like many other slave narratives, was so effective in cultivating the Black Abolitionist Identity.
  The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass was an Autobiography in which he personalized the issues of slavery for many who had been disconnected from it by discussing his own painful history as a slave. He and other Black Abolitionists, correctly understood how to frame his works to elicit strong emotions from his readers and give them an intimate view of slavery and its atrocities. The book employs pathos, ethos, and logos to solidify the Black Abolitionist Identity and use them to bring all of those who opposed slavery to one solid force against it.
The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass primarily uses pathos to personalize the atrocities of slavery for anyone reading the book by portraying Douglass’ own plight through the process of slavery before finally escaping to his freedom. The book tells countless stories of being estranged and beaten.  He says while working for his owner, Mr. Covey, “[Mr. Covey] lashed [Douglass] till he had worn out his stitches, cutting him so savagely as to leave the marks visible for a long time after (Douglass 52). The extent to which the brutality and painful atrocities of slavery are expressed through this novel are somewhat troubling. It elicits pain and disgust at how the practices of slavery could honestly be continuing in such a manner. In another story, Douglass describes his suffering at his breaking point: “Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!” (Douglass 55). The personal and intimate description of Douglass’ soul and spirit being crushed draws an intense empathy from the reader, feeling truly sorry for Douglass. These among countless other stories of brutality and suffering under the chains of slavery are bulk of The Narrative.  The physical pain and distress brought to the slaves was portrayed and publicized through this book in a manner which could elicit strong emotions from any reader. From Northern Abolitionists, it drew sympathy for the slaves and moral disgust at the practices that continued in the South. From freed and enslaved blacks, it drew empathy for one another’s suffering, but it also created a sort of empowerment. Seeing Fredrick Douglass, who himself escaped slavery, empowered Blacks to believe that they could too, and they began to fill this Black Abolitionist Identity, fighting for their own freedom. This form of Black empowerment through The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass was able to provide one of the key factors that led to the escalation of the issue up to the civil war (Sinha). As stated before this rhetoric and powerful emotional appeal was crucial in the development of the complete Abolitionist Movement. The autobiography and other narratives like it, many examples of which can be found in Charles Davis’ book The Slave Narrative, were able to portray slavery and Southern slave owners in a rhetorical frame of severe injustice. The amorality of this injustice painted Southern slave owners as a clear target as all of the different Anti-Slavery groups and peoples were able to align their own personal frames behind the one presented by the slave narrative. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in particular was one of the first and most prolific slave narratives, bringing together the different Abolitionist groups by eliciting a strong set of emotions in its readers and bringing about a larger Black Abolitionist Identity through its message.
The book, while being powerfully emotional and striking chords throughout the many sects of the Abolitionist Movement, also held a strong amount of ethos in its content that previous Abolitionist writings were missing. Fredrick Douglass, by having been a former slave, created a new authority with his autobiography. Up until that point, any writings that had been distributed by the White Immediatists could not have held nearly the form of weight that the book did or any other slave narratives. When the White Immediatists spoke and wrote of the problem, it was a far removed description of the atrocities that slavery produced and was. Due to this distance, their writings had no strong impact on anyone who was not actively an Abolitionist or part of the Immediatist cause (Mailloux 85). Their calls of the amorality of slavery were generic and could not have held the authority that The Narrative did, having been written by a former slave who had truly experienced these atrocities. The fact that The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was a book about experiencing slavery from someone who truly had, brought an authority in its writings that no White Immediatist literature could have. The way the autobiography was viewed was fundamentally different due to this distinction. It contained the gritty real truth with experience which spoke its readers in a way that all previous writing had been missing. This experience of having been a slave helped Frederick Douglass and his autobiography sway his audience with significant ethos (Mailloux 85). The authority The Narrative held made its readers take the atrocities seen in the book as truth and fact and to feel the need to take arms against it. This exposure led to a growing Black Abolitionist Identity as more individuals felt that they had learned just how amoral slavery was. However, Douglass also gains an additional authority through being such an eloquent speaker and writer. As a former slave, to be literate at all was uncommon. His ability to write and speak so powerfully additionally gave him a fair amount of ethos as well, portraying him as a strong and respectable leader.
Finally, The Narrative of Frederick Douglass also used Logos to build the Black Abolitionist Identity in a slightly subtler way. When Douglass’ autobiography became published and publicized, a revelation spread across the minds of the slaves residing in the south. They were reading the narrative of a former slave, who had taken charge of his life and escaped and had become well regarded and strong. The story of the narrative logically led Blacks still enslaved in the South to begin fighting more intensely for their own freedom (Chukwu).  After Frederick Douglass’ Narrative spread, more Slave Narrative’s began spreading as well, further increasing slaves’ resistance against their masters. This is where the final piece of the Black Abolitionist Identity is created. After seeing The Narrative as well as other narratives of slaves escaping and truly being free in the north, the slaves of the south were able to join the Black Abolitionist Identity and began advocating more seriously for their own freedom. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass spread the message that if Frederick Douglass could do it, so could anyone else bound by slavery (Aptheker). This appeal to logos fundamentally changed the way slaves viewed themselves under slavery and launched them into feeling united under the Black Abolitionist Identity (Aptheker).
Through appeals to emotion, authority, and logic, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass among other slave narratives, brought together a new identity of Black Abolitionists to further propel the Abolitionist movement towards its goals. This new Identity was united in their new intimate view of the atrocities of slavery and its amorality. This identity was also headed by a new set of Black Abolitionist leaders such as Frederick Douglass who held an authority on the suffering caused by slavery having once been slaves themselves. These narratives also pushed southern enslaved Blacks into the new Abolitionist Movement by showing them the potential to escape slavery and to join with the spirited and ever growing Black Abolitionist Identity.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is just one of many examples of writings that helped bolster the Black Abolitionist Identity. These writings were able to personalize and portray slavery in a way that the previous White Immediatist Identity was wholly unable. The Black Abolitionist Identity was one that was able to reach many more groups of people by displaying slavery as injustice to the enslaved and strengthened the movement by changing its rhetoric from being about an immorality in the face of God. The Black Abolitionist Identity, with these changes, was significantly stronger than the previous white Immediatist identity and shows how important a sense of identity is in throughout the course of a movement. The White Immediatist Identity, through its zealous methods, turned many people away from its ideals, however moral they may have been. The Black Abolitionist Identity, essentially pushing for the same final goal, did so with a rhetoric that was able to many more people feel attached to the identity, and therefore the goal.
While the Abolitionist movement was unable to actually achieve its goals diplomatically, it was able to lead to significant tension in the United States resulting in the Civil War. Additionally, the effect of the Black Abolitionist Identity in creating a larger push for the abolishment of slavery was crucial in raising tension to that point.











Works Cited:

Aptheker, Herbert. The Negro in the Abolitionist Movement. 1st ed. Vol. 5. New York: International, 1941. Print. Pp. 2-23.

Bernier, Celeste-Marie. "From Fugitive Slave To Fugitive Abolitionist." Atlantic Studies 3.2 (2006): 201-24. Web.

Chaney, Michael A. Fugitive Vision: Slave Image and Black Identity in Antebellum Narrative. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2008. Print.
Chukwu, Dan O. "Background to the Era of New Abolitionism." Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 17 (2007): 1-15. Web.

Davis, Charles T., and Henry Louis Gates. The Slave's Narrative. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985. Print.

Ferrell, Claudine L. The Abolitionist Movement. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006. Print.

Harrold, Stanley. The Abolitionists and the South: 1831-1861. Lexington, KY: U of Kentucky, 1995. Print.

Jasper, James M. "The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions In and Around Social Movements." Sociological Forum 13.3 (1998): 397-424. Web.
Lamb, Benjamin. Angry Abolitionists and the Rhetoric of Slavery: Moral Emotions in Social Movements.  Springer International, 2016. Print. Cultural Sociology.

Litwack, Leon F. "The Abolitionist Dilemma: The Antislavery Movement and the Northern Negro." The New England Quarterly 34.1 (1961): 50-73. Web.

Olson, Joel. "The Freshness of Fanaticism: The Abolitionist Defense of Zealotry." Perspectives on Politics 5.04 (2007): 685-701. Web.

O'Loughlin, Jim. "Articulating "Uncle Tom's Cabin"" New Literary History, Philosophical and Rhetorical Inquiries 31.3 (2000): 573-97. Johns' Hopkins University Press. Web.

Shortell, T. "The Rhetoric of Black Abolitionism: An Exploratory Analysis of Antislavery Newspapers in New York State." Social Science History 28.1 (2004): 75-109. Web.

Sinha, Manisha. The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition. Yale UP, 2016. Print.


Stewart, James Brewer. Abolitionist Politics and the Coming of the Civil War. Amherst: U of Massachusetts, 2008. Print.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Audience Description Post

Open Letter to Donald Trump about Climate Change:


1) My audience is going to be the entire American Public, focusing on the massive amount of the American Public that still denies climate change. This demographic is fairly diverse, but the thing that connects them is their support for Donald Trump and his claims that Climate change is a hoax and can be denied, leading them to allow its research to be defunded and cancelled.

2) This demographic has a large representation of White, non-college educated citizens of the country. Donald Trump won in 90% of counties where less than 10% of the population had a college education, helping show that that is actually a possible and accurate demographic for the letter. The letter will be to those who voted for Donald Trump, supporting his ideals of removing climate change research under the belief that it is not a valid concern for the american people.

3) Citizens of the United States, Live under the US government and are affected by its policies. Live on the planet earth. Have to deal with the consequences of climate change. Can often significantly be misinformed due to mass media distortions.

4) Our beliefs that Climate change is a real problem. Amount of attention and funding research should be given. That more research will be useful in determining the coming effects of climate change. Caring what happens to the future of the earth, because they are older and Climate Change won't effect them. They have interests that cause them to willfully deny climate change.

5) Only the caring what happens to the future of the Earth would be an insurmountable obstacle in accepting the argument. If this was the case, no matter how much research went into proving the validity of climate change, there would be no way that it would matter to the demographic that no longer cares what happens to the Earth after they die. All other principles should be able to be surpassed by using research to prove that Climate change is a real problem, proving how important research is, and climate change is still being able to be plausibly denied, then only with more research would it be possible to further validate it rather than cut it at a point where people are not convinced. Also, if they willfully deny climate change, the research is what is necessary to further project how devastating the results of climate change will be in order to lead these people to reassess their interests and truly fall in line behind the necessity of treating Climate change as the real issue that it is.

6) We will find common ground in caring about the earth and for our own lives on that Earth. There isn't a single American citizen who doesn't enjoy the beauty that the Earth provides, and if I can just prove to them how the Earth is in Danger and therefor their own and their children's lives,  then we can find common ground in wanting to continue research on Climate Change.

7) There is very little room for concession in this argument. I am willing to allow climate change research to be slightly shrunk, but it cannot be defunded and lost altogether. If there are people out there who can still deny climate change, research and proper distribution of that research is the only way to prove to them how real it is and project the impacts it will one day have on us if we don't stop it soon. As climate change is getting worse, we need to keep funding to keep reassessing the damage we are doing to the world.

8) I will probably explicitly acknowledge and respond to objections right at the beginning as basically rebutting to the arguments that my audience would lay down will probably be the majority of the letter. Most people have been introduced to the topic of climate change and have thoughts about it. I will need to start at a place that understand that most people have already made up their mind about the topic, but I will need to slowly push them away from their closed beliefs into at least believing in the possibility of climate change.


Problem Frame: Trump's cancelling of Climate Change Research

Donald Trump, our new President-Elect, is currently planning on completely cancelling all of NASA's climate change research, claiming it has become too politicized. While it is true that climate change has become a very politically charged topic, the overwhelming scientific consensus is that human-caused climate change is real and can no longer be overlooked. 97% of climate scientists agree that global climate change is one of the largest problems facing the world today and not taking it seriously could mean global flooding, droughts, and increasingly extreme weather conditions. The American people need to band together to protest Trump's plans to remove climate change research in order to protect our society through any means necessary.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Analysis of Movement Artifact: The Abolitionist Movement

Farid Ghamsari
Dr. Stephanie Brown
English 306
11/2/2016
The Abolitionist Movement
Analysis of Movement Artifact:

            The 1840’s were a pivotal and intense time in the United States. The issue of slavery and its morality was one that found its way to the forefront of the political conversation of the United States during this time. The White Immediatists, pushing for the complete and total abolishment of slavery throughout the United States, were growing into a larger identity which scared and angered the slaveholders of the South. The South was infuriated due to the Immediatists zealous tactics and simply unreasonable requests. In the way that Immediatists were making demands from the southern slaveholders, it was only reasonable that they would receive a serious opposition (Stewart 12). While the conversation was growing more intense and heated, it was still only taking place between White Immediatists, with their mass media, and the Southern slaveholders. It was a call from the Immediatists to banish slavery on the point of pure morality it the face of God. At this time, Southern infrastructure required slavery and in the South, its morality was largely being ignored as necessity (Harrold 16).  
As these tensions grew more polarized and grounded in their opposition, a new identity joined the rhetorical struggle in the debate. The Black Abolitionist Identity, which was created mostly by free black leaders who were able to unite those against slavery with a rhetoric that had been previously unavailable. The rhetoric of the Black Abolitionist Identity, personalized the issue of slavery for many who had been disconnected from it, and reinvigorated the Abolitionist cause as one of Human Rights, uniting Abolitionist Whites, with free and enslaved Blacks, to push for the civil right of freedom.  The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass was published in 1845 and truly embodied this new Black Abolitionist Identity. Written by Fredrick Douglass, who had been once enslaved and then freed, the book and other slave narratives employ pathos, ethos, and logos to solidify the Black Abolitionist Identity and use them to bring all of those who opposed slavery to one solid force against it.
The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass primarily uses pathos to personalize the atrocities of slavery for anyone reading the book by portraying Douglass’ own plight through the process of slavery before finally escaping to his freedom. The book tells countless stories of being estranged and beaten.  He says while working for his owner, Mr. Covey, “[Mr. Covey] lashed [Douglass] till he had worn out his stitches, cutting him so savagely as to leave the marks visible for a long time after (Douglass 52). The extent to which the brutality and painful atrocities of slavery are expressed through this novel are somewhat troubling. It elicits pain and disgust at how the practices of slavery could honestly be continuing in such a manner. In another story, Douglass describes his suffering at his breaking point: “Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!” (Douglass 55). The personal and intimate description of Douglass’ soul and spirit being crushed draws an intense empathy from the reader, feeling truly sorry for Douglass. These among countless other stories of brutality and suffering under the chains of slavery are bulk of The Narrative.  The physical pain and distress brought to the slaves was portrayed and publicized through this book in a manner which could elicit strong emotions from any reader. From Northern Abolitionists, it drew sympathy for the slaves and moral disgust at the practices that continued in the South. From freed and enslaved blacks, it drew empathy for one another’s suffering, but it also created a sort of empowerment. Seeing Fredrick Douglass, having escaped slavery, empowered Blacks to believe that they could too, and they began to fill this Black Abolitionist Identity, fighting for their own freedom. This form of Black empowerment through The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass was able to provide one of the key factors that led to the escalation of the issue up to the civil war (Sinha). As stated before this rhetoric and powerful emotional appeal was crucial in the development of the complete Abolitionist Movement. The autobiography and other narratives like it were able to portray slavery and Southern slave owners in a rhetorical frame of severe injustice. The amorality of this injustice painted Southern slave owners as a clear target as all of the different Anti-Slavery groups and peoples were able to align their own personal frames behind the one presented by the slave narrative. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in particular was one of the first and most prolific slave narratives, bringing together the different Abolitionist groups by eliciting a strong set of emotions in its readers and bringing about a larger Black Abolitionist Identity through its message.
The book, while being powerfully emotional and striking chords throughout the many sects of the Abolitionist Movement, it also held a strong amount of ethos in its content that previous Abolitionist writings were missing. Fredrick Douglass, by having been a former slave, created a new authority with his autobiography. Up until that point, any writings that had been distributed by the White Immediatists could not have held nearly the form of weight that the book did or any other slave narratives. When the White Immediatists spoke and wrote of the problem, it was a far removed description of the atrocities that slavery produced and was. Due to this distance, their writings had no strong impact on anyone who was not actively an Abolitionist or part of the Immediatist cause (Mailloux 85). Their calls of the amorality of slavery were generic and could not have held the authority that The Narrative did, having been written by a former slave who had truly experienced these atrocities. The fact that The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was a book about experiencing slavery from someone who truly had, brought an authority in its writings that no White Immediatist literature could have. The way the autobiography was viewed was fundamentally different due to this distinction. It contained the gritty real truth with experience which spoke its readers in a way that all previous writing had been missing. This experience of having been a slave helped Frederick Douglass and his autobiography sway his audience with significant ethos (Mailloux 85). The authority The Narrative held made its readers take the atrocities seen in the book as truth and fact and to feel the need to take arms against it. This exposure led to a growing Black Abolitionist Identity as more individuals felt that they had learned just how amoral slavery was.
Finally, The Narrative of Frederick Douglass also used pathos to build the Black Abolitionist Identity in a slightly subtler way. When Douglass’ autobiography became published and publicized, a revelation spread across the minds of the slaves residing in the south. They were reading the narrative of a former slave, who had taken charge of his life and escaped and had become well regarded and strong. The story of the narrative logically led Blacks still enslaved in the South to begin fighting more intensely for their own freedom (Chukwu).  After Frederick Douglass’ Narrative spread, more Slave Narrative’s began spreading as well, further increasing slaves’ resistance against their masters. This is where the final piece of the Black Abolitionist Identity is created. After seeing The Narrative as well as other narratives of slaves escaping and truly being free in the north, the slaves of the south were able to join the Black Abolitionist Identity and began advocating more seriously for their own freedom. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass spread the message that if Frederick Douglass could do it, so could anyone else bound by slavery (Aptheker). This appeal to logos fundamentally changed the way slaves viewed themselves under slavery and launched them into feeling united under the Black Abolitionist Identity (Aptheker).
Through appeals to emotion, authority, and logic, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass among other slave narratives, brought together a new identity of Black Abolitionists to further propel the Abolitionist movement towards its goals. This new Identity was united in their new intimate view of the atrocities of slavery and its amorality. This identity was also headed by a new set of Black Abolitionist leaders such as Frederick Douglass who held an authority on the suffering caused by slavery having once been slaves themselves. These narratives also pushed southern enslaved Blacks into the new Abolitionist Movement by showing them the potential to escape slavery and to join with the spirited and ever growing Black Abolitionist Identity.




Works Cited:

Ferrell, Claudine L. The Abolitionist Movement. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006. Print.

Sinha, Manisha. The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition. Yale UP, 2016. Print.

Lamb, Benjamin. Angry Abolitionists and the Rhetoric of Slavery: Moral Emotions in Social Movements.  Springer International, 2016. Print. Cultural Sociology.

Harrold, Stanley. The Abolitionists and the South: 1831-1861. Lexington, KY: U of Kentucky, 1995. Print.

Davis, Charles T., and Henry Louis Gates. The Slave's Narrative. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985. Print.

Stewart, James Brewer. Abolitionist Politics and the Coming of the Civil War. Amherst: U of Massachusetts, 2008. Print.

Chaney, Michael A. Fugitive Vision: Slave Image and Black Identity in Antebellum Narrative. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2008. Print.

Bernier, Celeste-Marie. "From Fugitive Slave To Fugitive Abolitionist." Atlantic Studies 3.2 (2006): 201-24. Web.

Aptheker, Herbert. The Negro in the Abolitionist Movement. 1st ed. Vol. 5. New York: International, 1941. Print. Pp. 2-23.

Shortell, T. "The Rhetoric of Black Abolitionism: An Exploratory Analysis of Antislavery Newspapers in New York State." Social Science History 28.1 (2004): 75-109. Web.

Litwack, Leon F. "The Abolitionist Dilemma: The Antislavery Movement and the Northern Negro." The New England Quarterly 34.1 (1961): 50-73. Web.

Chukwu, Dan O. "Background to the Era of New Abolitionism." Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 17 (2007): 1-15. Web.

Olson, Joel. "The Freshness of Fanaticism: The Abolitionist Defense of Zealotry." Perspectives on Politics 5.04 (2007): 685-701. Web.

O'Loughlin, Jim. "Articulating "Uncle Tom's Cabin"" New Literary History, Philosophical and Rhetorical Inquiries 31.3 (2000): 573-97. Johns' Hopkins University Press. Web.

Jasper, James M. "The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions In and Around Social Movements." Sociological Forum 13.3 (1998): 397-424. Web.


Mailloux, Steven. Reception Histories: Rhetoric, Pragmatism, and American Cultural Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1998. Print.

Douglass, Fredrick. Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass.; 1845. Print.


Thursday, November 3, 2016

The Abolitionist Movement: Historical and Rhetorical Contexts

Farid Ghamsari
Dr. Stephanie Brown
English 306
11/2/2016
The Abolitionist Movement
Historical Context:
                Since the British colonization of the western world, slavery was a common practice. Slavery became a staple in the British colonies in the 1500-1600’s due to the economic success that it provided to slave holders. There was a significant need for cheap labor and slavery fit the bill so well that it became a very prevalent practice in the colonies. Before the United States gained its independence in 1776, slavery remained very common and accepted in most places, only being denounced by several small groups such as The Quakers. The Quakers, a group of northern colonists, was one of the first groups to oppose slavery and opposed it on moral grounds, saying that the practice was a violation of human brotherhood (Ferrell 7).  The movement to denounce slavery and abolish it immediately and completely was known as the Abolitionist Movement.
Though there were small groups which had desired this since the 1500’s, the movement really began in 1776, shortly after the United States became a sovereign nation.  Up until this time, most if not all states, were fairly accepting of the practice of slavery, while many in these areas considered it immoral and irreprehensible. Many at the time considered the practice evil, and yet simply didn’t free their slaves due to the “general inconvenience of living without them”. (Ferrell 18). Over the next 50-60 years, the northern states slowly began introducing legislature which first banned slave trade, and then slavery altogether. By the 1820’s most northern states had all but abolished slavery in the north. (Ferrell 28).
Slavery in the South was a much more ingrained practice however. In the North, slavery became a practice of convenience over time, but in the South, slavery was needed to work plantations. By using slavery, plantation owners could make significantly more money and for this reason the ideas of the immorality of slavery were not as prevalent or concerning. The disjointed nature of the south, having great stretches of distance between plantations, was also a hindrance to the spreading of ideas. The South strongly resisted the abolitionist movement for these reasons and actively fought it on a number of occasions with laws such as the Fugitive Slave Law. In 1793, the law was passed which forced northern states to return runaway slaves to the south. (Ferrell 27). Slavery was one of the most important staples of the economy of the south and to give up slavery would essentially ruin many of the wealthiest people in the south.
 However, while slavery was condemned in the North, free African Americans were actually not significantly better off than the slaves who lived in the south. During this time, in the North, there was still severe discrimination and racism that existed towards free Blacks (Litwack). Blacks in the North had to fight very similar battles as those in the south. In the 1820’s, The Abolitionist Movement in the North became a mission of civil rights for all free men living in the United States. This new goal was significantly assisted by new several abolitionist newspapers such as The Liberator, started and written by William Lloyd Garrison, an important white leader in the Abolitionist Movement (Shortell).
By the 1830’s, The Liberator, along with several other newspapers, launched a renewed Abolitionist campaign in the North, focused on complete racial equality, and began launching a more focused campaign to end slavery in the south. (Stewart). The South strongly resisted these campaigns, unwilling to give up their slaves for any reason that couldn’t trump their financial successes. These newspapers along with Black leaders led to a high point of turmoil in the North during the 1830’s and 40’s. During this period, even Northern Whites who had freed their slaves were worried about a resulting race war if the Abolitionist Rhetoric continued in the way that it was. This period of time is known as the Antebellum Period of the Abolitionist movement and is considered the most radical period of the movement, pushing for complete racial equality and “respectability” for African Americans. This Antebellum period can be considered at the crisis of the Abolitionist Movement under Griffin’s framework for describing political protests. (Griffin)
White newspapers show the effect that White Aboltionism had on the movement. Up until the 1830’s and 40’s the actions of Black Abolitionists while significant, did not create a widespread Black Abolitionist Identity. Since the beginning of the Abolitionist Movement in the US, African Americans were actively fighting slavery in a way which pushed it to its limits before it was completely abolished in each area. In Massachusetts, in 1776, Black slaves were able to run from their owners, and once they had escaped, they would be considered free. They would then return and lawfully emancipate the rest of the slaves who were still residing with the owner (Sinha). In Vermont, Black Abolitionists were able to constitutionally institute universal male suffrage. From there they were able to vote on the issue of slavery and were able to condemn it (Sinha). Black leaders had lasting impacts on the initial abolition of slavery in the North, but soon after slavery was abolished in these areas, the majority of the Abolitionist identity was lost amongst African American’s who’d already been freed. It was only in the 1830’s and 40’s when free black men became a strong source of leadership. Many prior slaves became strong writers and orators who spread abolitionism to other African Americans in a way that no white Abolitionist could have. They helped make abolition an African American cause and movement which forcefully thrust the movement forward towards deeper divides with slave owners and eventually the Civil War. Black leaders such as Henry Garnet, Henry Bibb, and Fredrick Douglass championed the Black Abolitionist cause and spread the ideals with a new found zeal and strength. (Harold 118).
 Fredrick Douglass was an African American who had been born a slave in Maryland. For many years, he was beaten daily by his owners until he was hired to another slave owner who treated him better. (Ferrell 122). Douglass escaped slavery 1838 and moved to the North. There, he began reading The Liberator and was greatly inspired by William Lloyd Garrison. Soon after, Douglass wrote his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass” which contained a slave narrative that became wildly popular as an insight into the life of a slave. Douglass gained much acclaim and became a dominant figure in the Abolitionist Movement. He was such a strong orator and writer that many found it hard to believe that he had ever been a slave. During his life, he wrote several more influential works such as “My Bondage and My Freedom” (Chaney 17), and gave numerous influential speeches. He is remembered for establishing different themes throughout his writing to depict different ideas such as Black-Heroism and the equality of man by being man”. One of the most influential speeches he gave was of the Creole slave ship revolt, in which a black leader, Madison Washington, led 19 slaves in a successful revolt against their captives while killing only one crew member. They redirected the ship to Britain where the all of the 135 slaves aboard were declared free (Bernier). His speeches and writings personalized the atrocities of slavery and brought them onto a public scale. The works allowed White people to see how evil slavery could be, and they let slaves see how they could begin to champion their own freedom as Douglass and those he spoke of had done (Davis).  Other Southern Black Liberators began writing and an increasing force grew from their collective identity as more slaves began to understand their own power to revolt and free themselves. (Davis)
Fredrick Douglass entered the protest at a very critical point. His rhetoric changed the conversation and role of Abolitionism. It shifted from being a predominantly white-led movement, as shown by William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator, to one primarily led by free Black leaders. He also helped in creating a following and support for the movement in both free and enslaved blacks, which pushed the movement to a breaking point. The movement became a stark split in the nation and was one of the factors that led to the Civil War. The Civil war led to the emancipation of all slaves in the United States, essentially ending the Abolitionist Movement. The object of protest of this paper will focus on Fredrick Douglass and his speeches, in particular noting the influences and themes throughout his speeches that gave them the strength and following that they did.



Rhetorical Context:
                The rhetoric of the Abolitionist Movement began as one that was mainly led by white Immediatists. The Immediatists were those who believed that slavery should be condemned because they saw it as a heinous crime to God and American Ideals (Stewart 6). These Immediatists saw emancipation as the only way to rid America of the injustices of the slavery and reconcile the US with God, and they called for the immediate and complete abolishment of slavery all over the US. (Stewart 7). This identity was a strong but fairly small one. The percentage of the population in the North that consisted of these religiously moral Immediatists was relatively minimal, despite the speed with which their messages spread in the North. William Lloyd Garrison was initially an Immediatist and with the use of his newspaper The Liberator he was able to spread this message quickly and broadly. The Immediatists identity saw its strongest era in the early 1830’s. At this point in time, many others joined the Immediatists under the idea that Slavery was morally irreprehensible whether it be in the eyes of God specifically or not. (Stewart 7).
                The south resisted the ideals of the Immediatists strongly. The south was deeply racist during this time and saw slaves as property rather than human individuals. There were few Southern Abolitionists prior to the 1830’s and these people were often attacked or harassed by pro-slavery extremists (Harrold 18). For this reason, the spreading of information and Abolitionist ideals was slow to spread in the south. To southerners, the economy held by slavery was significantly more important and valuable than the values that white Immediatists seemed to be preaching. The south considered Northern Immediatists to be fanatical and unrealistic, asking Southern Slave owners to simply give up their largest and most valuable investments (Harrold 15). These Immediatists, while spreading a relatively moral message, were essentially zealous in their method of doing so. Many Immediatists were followers of “William Lloyd Garrison’s radical brand of abolitionism, [and] became infamous for breaking up services in churches that barred antislavery meetings.”(Olson). Though it seems that the Immediatists had good intentions, their methods through which they tried to achieve emancipation were overly zealous and fairly disrespectful. This is one issue that kept Southern leaders from wanting to even think about emancipating their slaves. The southerners were outraged by the ways Immediatists tried to push their agenda and in many ways dug themselves in deeper into their Pro-slavery ideals due to the Immediatists. (Stewart 12).
                These Immediatists failed in many regards in their protest. They failed in developing a strong identity in the North that collectively felt the need to end slavery in the South. In his article “The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions in and around Social Movements”, Jasper articulates the necessity of properly cultivating emotions in a protest, especially one that requires a basis around morality. (Jasper). He articulates that it is important for a protest to develop a proper frame for its participants to align with. By this, a frame is meant to represent a mindset or collective of ideas behind which members of a particular protest can feel a part of, and essentially aligning to the frame. For this protest it was important for the Immediatists of the North to create an Injustice Frame around slavery in the south. An injustice frame be considered a “way of viewing a situation or condition that expresses indignation or outrage over a perceived injustice”. (Jasper). The act of slavery, while clearly amoral, was not being represented by the Immediatists in a strong enough Injustice Frame for great amounts of society to be outraged and align with the cause.
                In the early 1840’s however, a new Abolitionist Identity began to arise. This abolitionist identity was that of the Southern Black Abolitionist (Stewart 21). This identity was championed by African American leaders such as Fredrick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Henry Garnet, who had previously been slaves, before they went on to be strong African American Abolitionists (Stewart 21). The Black Abolitionist Identity was built by these leaders and slowly grew into the south, attaching the Identity to all Black Slaves, who craved their freedom.
                This new identity created a pivotal role in the Abolitionist Movement. The Black Abolitionists, rather than calling for the abolishment of slavery, simply due to amorality, called for equal rights, through the definition of manhood. Black Abolitionists were not only fighting slavery, but calling for equal rights in northern society which was still very strongly racist (Shortell). This identity called for a restructuring of the rhetoric through which slavery should be addressed, as well as the way in which free African Americans should be treated. This identity was much stronger than the previous Immediatists in that it connected with black individuals in the south who were still enslaved. Many previously enslaved Black writers became leaders of this movement and identity by expressing the plight of the slave through narratives and memoirs as seen in Davis’ book, The Slave Narrative. These narratives and others like them gave insight into the life of the slave and clearly portrayed the injustice’s taking place in the south. One story in the collective tells of how David George, was “’whipped many a time on [his] naked skin’ after seeing his family cruelly abused” (Davis 51). Stories like this personalized the pain and suffering being caused by slavery and made this available not only free white and black people in the North, but also any literate slaves in the South. When Black slaves were able to see one another rise up against the injustices, it made them feel stronger about their own independent identities and more rebellious towards their captors.
The new Black identity, while developing this sense of strength among Black individuals, also created a new rhetoric through which to address the racism that persisted in the North (Bernier). Fredrick Douglass, one of the strongest orators and writers of the Black Abolitionists, can be considered a model and embodiment of the identity, and created many of its defining moments and its rhetoric. In one speech, Douglass argued, “I am here but to urge the right of every man to his own body, to his own hand, and to his own heart” (Bernier). In this, he is arguing that simply by the humanity and manhood of black men, they should have their lives in their own hands, as do all other men. With this, he elicits emotions of rebellion and revolt from Southern slaves, while also softening the hearts of white racists in the North who have tried to dehumanize Black Men.
The Black Abolitionist Identity was much more successful in the attacks against slavery than the previous Immediatist Abolitionism. This, in large part, is due to the effect that it had on Southern Slaves. Slaves felt encouraged to run away from their owners, in hope of securing their freedom as their African American Leaders had (Litwack). In many ways, this weakened the South’s hold over their slaves more than any other attempt from the North previously had. The increasing numbers of runaway slaves led to severely heightened tensions between the North and the South, ultimately becoming one of the main factors that led to the Civil War.
Once again looking at Jaspers’ discussion of emotions in protests again make it clear as to why this Identity so much more successful in the progression of the movement. Jasper argues several key points to the success of a protest, one being the proper framing of injustice. The new Black Abolitionist Identity, no longer simply framed injustice as amoral and a sin to God, but instead defined slavery as an injustice to the men who were enslaved. Through the rhetoric of collective manhood for both Blacks and Whites, a collective identity of man was able to be created. With this identity, it became clear that the immoral injustice of slavery was not just a problem for Black men, but also White men too, who were connected in their collective manhood. This rhetoric framed the injustice of slavery in a way in which Black and White men could easily align themselves and feel wholly part of the collective identity.  This connection that was growing between them was easily quantified by the amount of slaves that were able to escape and were hosted by Black and White Northerners (Lamb). Southern slave owners were outraged by mostly outraged by the rhetoric and actions of the Black and White Northerners who refused to return the runaway slaves, saying that they were, “’stealing’ under federal law” (Lamb). With this, the Black Abolitionist Identity not only connected all those who wanted the abolishment of slavery under a single emotional frame and collective identity, but it also alienated and enraged the Southern Slave holders. This type of dissent in the South, as well as the strengthened identity among Black enslaved and free men, as well as White men is what lead to the rising tensions that brought on the Civil War.

Questions:
1). Am I specific enough with how the Black Abolitionist Identity Achieved what it was supposed to be doing?
2) Is the historical context specific enough to understand what I'm trying to portray?
3) Should it clear how everything in the rhetorical context is related? I feel like I'm kind of jumping but also feel like it's all important. Any thoughts would be helpful.
















Works Cited:

Ferrell, Claudine L. The Abolitionist Movement. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006. Print.

Sinha, Manisha. The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition. Yale UP, 2016. Print.

Lamb, Benjamin. Angry Abolitionists and the Rhetoric of Slavery: Moral Emotions in Social Movements.  Springer International, 2016. Print. Cultural Sociology.

Harrold, Stanley. The Abolitionists and the South: 1831-1861. Lexington, KY: U of Kentucky, 1995. Print.

Davis, Charles T., and Henry Louis Gates. The Slave's Narrative. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985. Print.

Stewart, James Brewer. Abolitionist Politics and the Coming of the Civil War. Amherst: U of Massachusetts, 2008. Print.

Chaney, Michael A. Fugitive Vision: Slave Image and Black Identity in Antebellum Narrative. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2008. Print.

Bernier, Celeste-Marie. "From Fugitive Slave To Fugitive Abolitionist." Atlantic Studies 3.2 (2006): 201-24. Web.

Aptheker, Herbert. The Negro in the Abolitionist Movement. 1st ed. Vol. 5. New York: International, 1941. Print. Pp. 2-23.

Shortell, T. "The Rhetoric of Black Abolitionism: An Exploratory Analysis of Antislavery Newspapers in New York State." Social Science History 28.1 (2004): 75-109. Web.

Litwack, Leon F. "The Abolitionist Dilemma: The Antislavery Movement and the Northern Negro." The New England Quarterly 34.1 (1961): 50-73. Web.

Chukwu, Dan O. "Background to the Era of New Abolitionism." Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 17 (2007): 1-15. Web.

Olson, Joel. "The Freshness of Fanaticism: The Abolitionist Defense of Zealotry." Perspectives on Politics 5.04 (2007): 685-701. Web.

O'Loughlin, Jim. "Articulating "Uncle Tom's Cabin"" New Literary History, Philosophical and Rhetorical Inquiries 31.3 (2000): 573-97. Johns' Hopkins University Press. Web.


Jasper, James M. "The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions In and Around Social Movements." Sociological Forum 13.3 (1998): 397-424. Web.