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.