Group Members

1. Group Members • Ally Hughes • Rui Fu • Taurjhai Purdie • Sam Seibert

2. Passage Chapter: 10 Page: 59 "You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! [1] You are freedom's swift-winged angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! [2] O that I were free! O, that I were on one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting wing! Alas! betwixt me and you, the turbid waters roll. Go on, go on. O that I could also go! Could I but swim! If I could fly! O, why was I born a man, of whom to make a brute! The glad ship is gone; she hides in the dim distance. [3] I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery. O God, save me! [4] God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? [5] Why am I a slave? [6] I will run away. I will not stand it. [7] Get caught, or get clear, I'll try it. I had as well die with ague as the fever. I have only one life to lose. I had as well be killed running as die standing. Only think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free! Try it? Yes! God helping me, I will. It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom. [8] The steamboats steered in a north-east course from North Point. I will do the same; and when I get to the head of the bay, I will turn my canoe adrift, and walk straight through Delaware into Pennsylvania. When I get there, I shall not be required to have a pass; I can travel without being disturbed. Let but the first opportunity offer, and, come what will, I am off. Meanwhile, I will try to bear up under the yoke. I am not the only slave in the world. Why should I fret? I can bear as much as any of them. Besides, I am but a boy, and all boys are bound to some one. It may be that my misery in slavery will only increase my happiness when I get free. There is a better day coming."

3. Annotation 1 "You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! The apostrophe that is present at the beginning of the passage serves to emphasize the oppression of Douglass. He reflects upon the freedom of the ship; how they move “merrily before the gentle gale.” He then compares this to how he lives constantly “before the bloody whip.” This sets the desperate tone for the rest of the passage, and helps Douglass in his analysis on the oppressions of slavery. Return to passage

4. Annotation 2 You are freedom's swift-winged angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! Douglass uses parallelism throughout the passage, like in the above quote where he is comparing himself to the ship. The parallelism serves to draw a direct comparison between the freedom of the ship and Douglass’s oppression. The ship is able to “fly around the world” while Douglass is confined “in bands of iron.” The comparison between the qualities of the and Douglass shows how slavery is restricting him from living. The inanimate object has more freedom than Douglass; this observation contributes to the tone of desperation and his anger towards god. If the ship has freedom, then Douglass should as well. Return to passage

5. Annotation 3 The glad ship is gone; she hides in the dim distance. Douglass uses personification of the ship to accentuate how far away from freedom is. The ship “hiding in the dim distance” represents freedom slipping from his grasp. This contributes to the helpless and desperate tone at the beginning of the passage. He believes that he will never be free, and that being able to be free is just as hopeless as having the dream to fly. The ship being glad emphasizes the happiness that comes with freedom; the fact that Douglass is not free indicates that he is not happy, and will never be unless he breaks away from the chains of slavery. This contributes to the desperate tone of the passage. Return to passage

6. Annotation 4 O God, save me! Repetition of “O”- “O” indicates self-pity, or a depressed state. Throughout the passage, Douglas repeats “O”, and each time, it is like Douglass is crying out in pain, and desperation due to the fact that he is unable to attain the freedom that the boats have. This somber feeling is so immense that he resorts to calling upon God to save him from his life of despair. Soon after, the “O” is used in order to emphasize his longings for freedom from the confines of slavery, which contributes to a desperate tone. Return to passage

7. Annotation 5 God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? The repetition of god in the passage portrays the helplessness of Douglass in his situation. He is now so desperate that despite the fact that earlier he condemned god, he is now turning to him for help. However, he also shows his disbelief in god when he proclaims “Is there any god?” Douglass is using god as a last resort in order to become released from the hold of slavery, despite his lack of true faith. This contributes to the desperate tone, as Douglass has become so desperate that he is turning to something he does not believe in to achieve freedom. Return to passage

8. Annotation 6 Why am I a slave? The use of the rhetorical question adds to the sense of desperation in the first half of the passage, before the tone shifts to being hopeful. Douglass portrays his sense of doubt towards his own beliefs, and condemns the life that was given to him. Douglass asks “is there any god?” before asking “Why am I a slave?” Douglass is blaming God for is slavery, which later proves to be ironic when Douglass says that he can gain his freedom with “God helping.” Return to passage

9. Annotation 7 I will run away. I will not stand it. In this part, there is a tone shift. Douglass goes from believing that freedom is far from being a reality for him, to saying that he will be able to run away. This tone shift serves as a turning point for Douglass; he now begins to make the steps that will eventually lead to his freedom. The use of anaphora helps emphasize this shift; Douglass will achieve his freedom. Return to passage

10. Annotation 8 This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom. Repetition of “bear” - “Bear” indicates a hopeful tone. Douglass succumbs the idea that he is not free at the moment, but instead of longing and self-pitying as a result of the comparison made between himself and the ship, he is hopeful. Douglass stated that he would bear the current burdens that are present as a result of slavery Bear is repeated in order to represent how Douglass has to remind himself that he can make it out of slavery, and that one day he could be free just like the boats were. This contributes to a hopeful tone. Return to passage

11. Rhetorical term - Apostrophe Apostrophe - an exclamatory passage in a speech or poem addressed to a person (typically one who is dead or absent) or thing (typically one that is personified). Return to Slide Return to passage

12. Rhetorical Term - Parallelism Parallelism - the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter. Return to passage Return to Slide

13. Rhetorical Term - Anaphora Anaphora - the deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic effect Return to Slide Return to passage

14. Rhetorical Term - Personification Personification - The attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure. Return to passage

15. Rhetorical Term - Repetition Repetition - a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer. Return to passage

16. Rhetorical Term – Rhetorical Question Rhetorical Question - a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply Return to passage

17. Rhetorical Term – Tone Shift Tone Shift - shifts in the mood as the story progresses Return to passage