!Frederick Douglass!

I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes- a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, - a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,- and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of the slaveholders find the strongest protection. Were I to be again reduced to the chains of clavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious mast the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others. It was my unhappy lot not only to belong to a religious slaveholder, but to live in a community of such religionists.

The first thing that I noticed about this section was the passioniate writing. The diction he uses like meanest, basest, cruel, cowardly, darkest, foulest is so powerful. Each word gets stronger and stronger. Also the words he uses are against most of the beliefs of the Age of Reason time, especially the cowardly. People were suppose to be strong and sensitive, and the slave owners were neither of these things. Here we also see how he feels about religion. He feels like it is just an excuse for the slave owners to treat the slaves in the way they did, and that made him extremely anger. He also says just being around a community with religion, makes him miserable, because it is always used as a reason to why they can treat the slaves the way they do. Another time the diction is very good is when he describes the slave owners actions as barbaric, which is turning the tables on the slave owners. They are always saying that the slaves are animals and not human, but now Douglass is saying No it is you guys who are the animals. Douglass is careful to not say all religion is bad, but just says southern religion is bad. Since his readers were in the north, he had to be careful not to insult them when he is trying to make a point. So this part of his writings was mainly making his agrument about how he feels that the Slave owners only use religion as a big excuse for the awful ways they treat there slaves and how it isn't right, because that is not the point of religion