In this passage Fredrick Duouglass recounts his emotions on escaping slavery and arriving in New York in 1838, by his extraordinary use of rhetorical devices. This passage gives the reader a brief history of the life of a slave living in the days when slavery was not outlawed, but instead, looked upon as a sign of wealth.
             In many passages the author tends to give a 1 sentence synopsis of the proceeding work of prose, in this case Douglass doesn't demur from this by stating "the wretchedness of slavery, and the blessedness of freedom, were perpetually before me." In this one sentence the reader can infer the gist of the passage, being about the characters bad experiences with slavery, and his exuberant joy of becoming free. Douglass is writing in the first person, as though he really was the slave in the 1800's, which adds to the passage's drama.
             Out of the many elements of style used in this passage, one of the more evident and plentiful that can be found is parallelism. Throughout the passage Douglass uses parallelism to stress his sentences, in one instance the author recollects when he moved to New York, and does not care to give the reader an explanation of his journey to become free; "How I did so-what means I adopted,-what direction I traveled, and by what mode of conveyance,-I must leave unexplained..." Another instance of parallelism, contains a structure that combines several different parallel clauses, "without home or friends-without money or credit-wanting shelter, and no one to give it-wanting bread, and no money to buy it-and at the same time let him feel that his pursued by merciless men-hunters, and in total darkness as to what to do, where to go, or where to stay.-perfectly helpless both as to the means of defense and means of escape..."; in this extremely lengthy sentence, Douglass is comparing the "slave" to "every whi
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