An Essay on two

contemporary writers

Slavery in general, in particular American slavery, has been an

issue for hundreds of years, and thousands of stories have become a
part of describing the horror of it. Whether these stories are real life
accounts or fiction, each of them bring some insight to the world
around us, and the problems we face as the human race. That is what
the writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglas both do.
Each, in their own way, show the truth and help others to understand it
through the similar rhetorical tools they use, from irony to diction to
metaphor.
Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglas both understood
slavery and the evils it brought upon the good country of America.
Frederick Douglas shows the horrors of his own childhood and
upbringing in such a world, while Harriet Beecher Stowe portrays the
sad lives of the characters in her book. The methods may be different,
but the end goals of their writings remain the same.
Through the use of diction and a slight metaphor, Frederick
Douglas demonstrates horrific cruelty as he recounts the brutal torture

towards one of his Aunts. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his

gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose.
The master had a heart of iron, a man so devoid of feelings that only
metaphor could bring to light the smallest ounce of the unkindness in
his heart. The repeating of the word no reemphasizes the same
cruelty. No words (no pleads), no tears (no cries), no prayers (no God),
could stop him from his actions. What type of man would willfully do
such wrong? Not a righteous man of God.
Uncle Tom suffers under a similar man. In the story of Uncle
Toms Cabin, Mr. Legree is a cruel man, an evil man, as he forces daily
pain and anguish on all of his slaves and beats them, even as they lay
dying at his feet. As he was doing the unthinkable to Tom, beating him
to beyond the brink of death, Hes most gone, Masr, said Sambo,
touched in spite of himself by the patience of his victim. Pay away, till
he gives up! Give it to him!give it to him! shouted Legree. Ill take
every drop of blood he has, unless he confesses! (Uncle Toms Cabin
pg. 350). Here lies the great irony, since Tom had committed no crime.
Mr. Legree was committing the crime. He was the one who in the heat
of severe situations, destroyed the lives of countless others. Each line
of the text is full of the diction that conveys the brutality of it in the
hard gs and ts. Give it to him!Give it to him! (underlining added
for emphasis) What is it that Mr. Legree is giving to Tom? Whatever it

may be, we may be sure that it is not righteous, but it is the evil that
rests in the heart of a cruel man.
In the midst of evil, the slaves dreamt of a better life. As Eliza
dreams of hope while resting on the soft and loving bed in the Quaker
house, she sees the land of dreams.
She dreamed of a beautiful country,a land, it seemed to her,
of rest,green shores, pleasant islands, and beautifully glittering
water; and there, in a house which kind voices told her was a
home, she saw her boy playing, a free and happy child. She
heard her husbands footsteps; she felt him coming nearer; his
arms were around her.
What is this beautiful country Eliza dreamed of? It was not the land in
the US South she knew so well. It was a happier place where the only
man is his own master under the rule of God. This was the place the
slaves dreamt of. It was a land of rest from horror. It was a land of
beauty and grace, the metaphor for a land of God. It was a land where
uncaring men who donned the title of master would not separate her
from her family anymore. (Uncle Toms Cabin pg. 118).
Eliza was not the only slave who dreamt of freedom. Many slaves
wished for it, and many sang of it. In the personal narrative written by
Frederick Douglas, he uses diction in a story he wrote about the slaves
of a great house, who as they walked to the main plantation, would
sing the songs of their hearts. They ere tones loud, long, and deep;

they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the
bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a
prayer to God for deliverance from chains. In this passage each soft b,
p, and l are a message of serenity, as shown in the phrase, Ere tones
loud, long, and deep. (underlining added for emphasis). In their songs
of hope, each tone breathed the prayer, the prayer for deliverance
and freedom.
In these two very different, yet similar writings, Mr. Legree and
the Master, mentioned by Frederick Douglas, are each shown as a
monster in society. And the slaves are the kind hearted dreamers of a
better world. Rhetoric is not the only piece of the puzzle to bring the
truth of these characters. It is the passion in the words of these authors
which brings the truth. When Tom stumbles under the weight of his
physical and emotional torment, and Frederick Douglas listens to and
watches the anguish experience by his Aunt, we are there with them
and we feel a small piece of the torture they had to endure. Just as we
feel the hope from Elizas dreams and the songs the slaves sing. We
must take these emotions and share them with others. We must go out
and find a way to help and save those poor men and women who are
chained to the bondage of slavery. We must be the new Douglass and
Stowe: the people who at last display the truth, in order that the
present horrors will be changed, and the past ones, never returned to
again.