Chapter One, Page Six
• Meredith Sears
Passage Chapter: 1
Page: 6
The overseer’s name was Plummer. Mr. Plummer was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a
savage monster. He always went armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel. I have known him to cut and slash
the women’s heads so horribly, that even master would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip
him if he did not mind himself.[1] Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder. It required extraordinary
barbarity on the part of an overseer to affect him[2] . He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of
slaveholding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. [3] I have often been
6
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. [4]No words, no tears, no
prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. [5] 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 [6]; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease
to swing the blood-clotted cowskin. [7] I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I
was quite a child, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember anything.[8]It was the first
of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with
awful force. [9] It was the bloodstained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to
pass. [10] It was a most terrible spectacle[11]. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld
it.
Annotation 1
I have known him to cut and slash the women’s heads so horribly, that even master
would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip him if he did not mind
himself.
The previously described as despicable master, who Douglass had states was unafraid
to separate families and “sell entire classes of slaves’ just because he felt like it was
now made out to almost humane in relation to the overseer. Who would punish the
slaves brutally both if they didn’t behave or just for his own sadistic sense of
entertainment. Even coming to the point of treating the overseer like a slave himself by
“threatening to whip him if he did not mind himself”. This can be considered ironic in
that the man who was hired to mind the slaves and punish them if necessary now fell
under the inhumane judgment of the master, such as if he himself was a slave.
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Annotation 2
Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder. It required extraordinary barbarity on
the part of an overseer to affect him
Douglass employs pathos in this excerpt to highlight the lack of sympathy the
slaveholder had towards the slaves. The use of the word extraordinary also highlights
that while the master would sometimes punish the overseer for his cruel actions it
would take near fatal action to affect him and drive him to take action against the
slaveholder.
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Annotation 3
He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholding. He would at times seem
to take great pleasure in whipping a slave.
Douglass employs antithesis in this passage when he says “He would at times seem to
take great pleasure in whipping a slave.” The whipping was obviously not an
enjoyable or pleasurable experience for the slave, nor would it be for a humane person
doing the whipping. Rather then experiencing remorse and sympathy towards the slave
he was punishing he enjoyed himself and continued to whip the slave until she or he
was screaming in agony.
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Annotation 4
No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart
from its bloody purpose.
Douglass employs metaphor in this passage when he compares Mr. Plummer’s heart to
a piece of iron. In reality his heart was not made of actual iron it had just taken on the
qualities of iron in that it had become hard and impermeable to the suffering of the
slaves he controlled, even when his brutal actions placed them in the face of death
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Annotation 5
The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest,
there he whipped longest.
The repetition of structure in this sentence is an example of isocolon and shows the
cause and effect relationship of the overseer’s action and the slave’s response. The
sentence structure suggests that as long as the slave continued to react to their
punishment, the overseer would continue, also suggesting that the overseer would
continue with his punishment of the slave until they had either lost consciousness or
had died.
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Annotation 6
He would whip to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush.
Douglass uses parallel structure in this excerpt to allude to the repetitiveness and the
possibility of an infinite repetition of the whipping. Due to his use of parallelism
Douglass is able to mimic a sentence that could continue on and on,-much like the
whipping-without repeating the idea over multiple sentences. The reader can infer from
this sentence that the whipping could continue until the slave stopped screaming as
each scream lead to the succeeding whip to make the slave hush.
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Annotation 7
and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin.
In this excerpt Douglass employs antimetabole in this excerpt by reversing the order of
not until overcome in order to convey the slaveholder’s persistence in teaching the
slave a lesson. He worked and whipped past when he was physically exhausted just to
continue to whip the slave. This shows the resentment he felt towards the slave despite
the fact that the slave had done nothing wrong.
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Annotation 8
I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child,
but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember anything.
Douglass again changes his syntax to convey meaning, Douglass again employs
antimetabole “I shall never forget it whilst I remember anything.” Adds gravity to the
horrors he witnessed when he was a child. He felt that the memory of such would stick
with him forever, even if he forgot everything else.
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Annotation 9
It struck me with awful force.
In this case Douglass uses the word “awful” to convey the severity of his realization. In
this case, the word awful does not describe something as bad as much as it does the
weight of the realization and how it affected him.
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Annotation 10
It was the bloodstained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was
about to pass.
Douglass employs allusion in this excerpt, the bible often speaks of theoretical gates in
to hell, such as in Matthew 16:18 “…and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
and are also often described as bloodstained, just as Douglass describes the
bloodstained gates into slavery, his and many other’s personal form of hell on earth. In
this excerpt he is talking about his own entrance into the harsh reality of slavery and
equates it to his entrance into hell.
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Annotation 11
It was a most terrible spectacle
Douglass employs antithesis in this section of the passage. A spectacle usually has a
positive connotation i.e. a carnival, but in this case the event is the whipping of a slave
which is a terrible and not at all positive or enjoyable event. This sharp contrast again
highlights the awful state the lives of him and his fellow slaves. Not only were they
suffering, there was also a twisted sense of enjoyment felt by his master and overseer
while the slaves were being brutally beaten.
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Rhetorical term
Pathos
Appeals to the heart, emotions, sympathy, passions, sentimentality.
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Rhetorical Term
antithesis
the juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words
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Rhetorical Term
isocolon
parallel structure in which the parallel elements are similar not only in
grammatical structure, but also in length
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Rhetorical Term
parallel structure
the use of similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts
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Rhetorical Term
Antimetabole: Figure of emphasis in which the words in one phrase or
clause are replicated, exactly or closely, in reverse grammatical order in the
next phrase or clause; an inverted order of repeated words in adjacent
phrases or clauses (A-B, B-A).
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Cudgel
noun
a short thick stick used as a weapon.
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Cowskin
noun
a heavy flexible whip braided from leather made
from the hide of a cow
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