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Douglass begins his narrative by describing one of the most basic truths of his life: that he had been a slave. He even explains that he was ignorant of his own age, and that he never truly knew his mother due to his bondage. As a former slave, Douglass is among the highest authority on life as a slave. It is for this reason that readers are able to trust more of what he writes.

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This is Douglass' counterargument to the Biblical contention that was commonly used at the time. He asserts that even though Ham was cursed in scripture, the growing population of mulatto children in America were no longer his direct descendants. Therefore, they were no longer bound to slavery by God. Douglass applies this reasoning in his work to convince readers rationally that slavery should be abolished.

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The songs are described at length by Douglass as sorrowful and dismal. Douglass even uses such powerful words as "woe" and "anguish". Their description causes readers to feel sympathetic towards the slaves. They are, thereafter, more likely to agree with Douglass' goal, which is the abolition of slavery.

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"The nearest estimate I can makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, some time during 1835, I was about seventeen years old." (Douglass 1)

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"If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, like myself, owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently their own masters." (Douglass 3)

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"[The songs] told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains." (Douglass 8)

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An appeal to authority and an author's credibility.

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An appeal to logic and reason.

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An appeal to emotions.