when I first time reading this article I feel so miserable, on page six the paragraph said ” He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin. ” This paragraph made me have more influence for slavery, how the people treat slavery during that time period, how people are so cruel to people, even its slavery but also so cruel to them, I never know the people treat slavery was that bad. I think from here he has some thing in his mind, that he really want to stop the slavery period, he really need to do something to end this thing. I think his diction, syntax, and literary style will help the reader read more clearly, can help the reader know what he is trying to say, and he explain so clearly so people can continue to read and understand him. One question I have after reading this paragragh is why such people treat slavery that bad, they are also human, why have so many difference, why the slavery have so many discrimination, they are also human, why such big difference between people and people. I feel real miserable for them.
Zijie, You have selected one of the most powerful and upsetting passages in Douglass’ autobiography. He refers to this incident – watching his aunt be savagely whipped – as “the bloodstained gate” through which he entered into his earliest understanding of what it meant to be a slave.