A quotation that I choose from the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas that had a strong impression on me is “After a patient waiting, I got one of our city papers, containing an account of the number of petitions from the north, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and of the slave trade between the States. From this time I understood the words abolition and abolitionist, and always drew near when that word was spoken, expecting to bear something of importance to myself and fellow-slaves. ” This quotation stood out to me because the people were waiting for petitions to get signed to stop slavery and handed the petitions to Washington DC to put an end to slavery. Frederick Douglas was fighting for abolition to end slavery permanently and he was fighting for his slaves and giving them the rights they deserve. This passage adds to our understanding of slavery is slavery was a difficult time in history and people just worked days and night as slaves in very bad conditions. The literary style Frederick Douglas uses in this reading is diction and syntax by describing the horrible conditions of being a slave and the tone of how the slaves were feeling and how hard it was for them being slaves. When I was reading the reading I can picture in my head the slaves working in bad conditions. The reading contains a lot of imagery by describing how the slaves are feeling and how their slave owner was treating them as slaves. He wants the reader to understand the slaves working conditions and it is not easy being a slave.
Simran, This passage reminds us what it must have meant to Douglass to discover that there were people fighting to abolish slavery. Remember – he was born into slavery and never encountered anyone who questioned the legitimacy of slavery as an institution, so learning about the abolitionist movement was truly a life-altering discovery.