Douglass

When reading Douglass, I was not able to discern between the slave drivers.  They were all described with harsh language.   They were categorized as cruel men with a penchant for profane language.  They were proud and cruel barbarians who were given leave to do their wicked deeds by their apathetic masters.  With his language, Douglass showed how barbaric the slave drivers were.  I found it interesting that the stereotypes persisted.  As a society, we still do not hold people who utilize profane language or copious amounts of alcohol in high esteem.
Douglass played on basic human emotions.  As humans, we tend to have more feelings for children, women, and the elderly.  When describing the savage whippings and beatings of the slaves, there were few instances where the slave was a grown man.  As a whole, most of his examples were of children or women.  The occasional example was of an elderly person.
Douglass also tugged on the heart strings with his continual liking of slaves to animals.  At one point, he even stated that to be a beast would be better than being a slave.  The images of slaves with little shelter, food, clothes and other basic human rights draws readers into this idea of slaves as beasts.
In his language, Douglass juxtaposes slaves and their masters.  His use of harsh words for the brutal slave drivers displays how they were more like beasts than those they abused.  His critique of whites does not end with the crash slave drivers.  He touches on the epitome of white culture--the proper white lady.  He talks of how his white mistress, who was once one of good heart and intentions, turned into a beast when she was given power over slaves.  The critique of the upper white class is interesting.  I found his description of the white women keeping the slaves out of their gardens to be fascinating.  Perhaps he was trying to allude to the Bible story of Eden.  This allusion could have many different connotations; the slaves as the rightful owners of the garden, the whites as gods (or thinking they are gods), etc.
I found the punishments of the male slaves to be intriguing.  Obviously, Douglass would prefer we focus on the savage beatings of the women and children, but the method of killing for men should not be overlooked.  With my basic understanding of human psychology, it is telling that the male slaves were killed by blows and shots to the face.  This suggests that those killing them felt the slight was personal and this is intriguing.  They could have very easily just shot them in the stomach or foot, but they chose the face.  This could definitely be a way to show their power over the slaves and make the punished slave into an example for all the others; yet it can also show how invested the whites were in their slaves.  The white dependency on slaves is a key aspect of Douglass's work and it is easy to overlook.