I first became familiar with Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in my American Political Thought class last semester. Something I noticed especially surprising and extraordinary about his narrative was the eloquence and fluency of Douglass’ words as a speaker of his own narrative. As a slave, Douglass was deprived of language, reading and writing skills- skills that a white person took advantage of. However, his narrative proved otherwise. Douglass wrote with more articulation and expression than any individual of his time. In a similar way, M. NourbeSe Philips performs her poem “Discourse on the Logic of Language,” which is comparable in many ways to Douglass’ slave narrative in terms of language. Her poem stresses the importance of the “mother tongue,” or language, we see throughout Douglass’ narrative. Both writers use language to assess their status as an individual and as a medium to integrate themselves into society. They tend to stray away from using words in their most basic sense. They take words and add complexity by means of literary devices and figurative language. Douglass especially does so to prove his intelligence as a slave. For example, in chapter one, Douglass writes, “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs…” In this sentence, Douglass uses a simile to show that slaves are perceived as having the intellectual of a horse. Douglass also uses irony, alliteration, personification and rhetoric devices to underline the significance and power of language. In addition, Philips emphasizes, “Every owner of slaves shall wherever possible shall ensure that the slaves belong to as many ethno-linguistic groups as possible. If they cannot speak to each other, they cannot then ferment rebellion and revolution. ” Thus, language is the most powerful form of expression which is necessary to liberate slaves from the bondage that constrains them to their slaveholders.