In the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, Frederick Douglass uses violent imagery to show the horrors and evils of slavery as well as the corruption within a society where slavery is legal.

The first time the violent imagery was used is in chapter I where Frederick Douglass narrates the violent punishment of Aunt Hester. Frederick Douglas narrated the scene as, “Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes… after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor” (239).  He continues with saying how he “was so terrified and horror stricken at the sight” (239) showing the intensity of the violence that was happening.

The second time he uses the violent imagery to show the horrors and evils of slavery is when he talked about Mr. Severe. He describe the imagery as, “I have seen him whip a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour at the time; and this, too, in the midst of her crying children, pleading for their mother’s release. He seemed to take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish barbarity” (241).  Not only is Frederick Douglass describing the violent scene with his narration, he also displayed the sadistic nature of the overseer through his words. Even with crying children begging him to stop, the overseer continues and even taking pleasure in dealing out the whipping.

The most prominent example of Frederick’s use of violent imagery to project the corruption of the society at the time was where he talked about the overseer, Mr. Gore. Frederick Douglass described the scene as, “Mr. Gore told him that he would give him three calls, and that, if he did not come out at the third call, he would shoot him… Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with any one… raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at this standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out of sigh, and blood and brains marked the water where he had stood”(246).  The  imagery of “blood and brains” marking the waters already shows how horrible the slaves were treated at the time. Frederick Douglass continues showing the corruption of the society by saying, “his horrid crime was not even submitted to judicial investigation. It was committed in the presence of slaves, and they of course would neither institute a suit, nor testify against him; and thus the guilty perpetrator of one of the bloodiest and most foul murders goes unwhipped of justice”(246).  This shows the corruption of the society when a murderer continues his job unpunished.

Slaves were considered objects rather than people. Through Frederick Douglass violent imagery,  he showed the horrors of slavery as well as the corrupted system of slavery.