Final answer:
Douglass used detailed and vivid language to describe ships on the Chesapeake, highlighting their impressive appearance and the orderly and dignified atmosphere on board. He contrasted this with the brutal treatment and dehumanization of slaves.
Step-by-step explanation:
Douglass used detailed and vivid descriptive language to describe ships on the Chesapeake. He described the ships as 'of the finest model, in the best order, and of the largest size,' with 'white wings before the breeze.' He also observed that there were no loud songs, deep oaths, or whippings on the ships, and that the workers went about their tasks with a sense of dignity and earnestness.
Douglass used detailed and vivid descriptive language to express his conflicting emotions upon viewing the sailing ships on the Chesapeake, seeing them as symbols of freedom and reflecting on his own enslavement.
The descriptive language that Douglass used to describe ships on the Chesapeake is detailed and vivid. Douglass employs emotional and evocative imagery to convey his complex feelings as he observes the ships. He describes them as 'beautiful vessels, robed in purest white,' which, to a freeman, would be delightful to the eye, but to him represented 'shrouded ghosts' that reflected his own 'wretched condition.' Among the serene and industrious surroundings, Douglass felt a deep sense of his own lack of freedom in contrast to the seeming freedom conveyed by the ships sailing across the bay.
In his narrative, he uses powerful language to express the irony and pain in the beauty he sees: the ships are symbols of freedom that he cannot attain. This use of descriptive language adds a layer of depth to the narrative, highlighting the cruelty of the system of slavery that bounds him while others are free to move and trade.