Analytical Essay_ AP English Language 1

Linda, a slave girl, narrates her experiences in ornate diction and a scathing tone to express her attitude toward the inequality and absurdity of society. She provides several anecdotes to define her stance about slavery and double standard of white men.

Through repeating the same phrases and sentence structures, the author delivers her criticism toward slavery. Linda uses four sentences starting with “Tell them…” to list down the condoned sinful acts that white men have practiced. Similarly, Linda gives out rhetorical questions to induce the readers to have second thoughts about the agony of slaves which is ignored by the blinded white men who do not have any “interest in the poor and the lowly.” She throws the questions in a strong voice, full of emotions, to figure out the cruelty of the slaveholders one by one.

Linda shows her critical acumen about the hypocrisy of the slaveholders by offering a number of stories from personal experiences. An example of a clergyman is used to show derision toward the visitors from the north who fails to see the reality of the slavery in the south. Only looking at the smallest portion of their lives, the northerners conclude that the slaves do not want freedom, and then have “hallelujah meetings and other religious privileges.” With the use of several descriptive words, the author contradicts the wretched truth and gilded slavery.

Several cases of double standard of the white men are portrayed throughout the whole passage. The slaveholders think that they are religious if they make offering which actually is the “price of blood”, came from the money they earned through slave trades. Also, religion does not seem to have any purifying effect, since the doctor still shows abusive and insulting behaviors toward the slaves. He considers women like playthings, ordering Linda to “be faithful and do what he requires to be as virtuous as his wife” while remaining to have “renounced the devil and all his works” outwardly.

The author ends the passage with a song of slaves, which has a negative connotation toward slavery. She compares the south to “Ole Satan’s church” while compares the north to “God’s free church.” This shows how she is confined in the brutal slavery of the south and how much she wants to go to the free north.