Frederick Douglass 4

Douglass’ Portrayal of Women in Slavery in His Narrative Frederick Douglass portrays the black and white women in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass at two opposite extremes in his innovative way of using the literary device of contrast to make his views clear and distinct to his readers. On one hand, there were the black female slaves who were beaten more severely, and more frequently than the male slaves. And on the …

…as composed, sensitive, and gentle human beings, yet Douglass shows his readers that the opposite was true. Douglass uses the literary device of contrasting to portray black and white women in his narrative by placing them at the two opposite ends of a slavery hierarchy. I believe he did this to create emotional astonishment for his readers, as well as to clarify the misunderstanding of the situation of females, both black and white, in slavery.