When writing an effective, fully developed body paragraph of an argumentative essay, you must include the following elements: a claim [what you are arguing], evidence, [usually a short quote], and a relatively lengthy explanation of the evidence. Lastly, you should link back to the thesis.
Though the reader of Douglass’ Narrative might expect the author to detail a continuous stream of horrors, Douglass actually gives readers the impression that the experience of slavery is not monolithic. For example, “he [Master Daniel] became quite attached to me, and was a sort of protector of me” (16). While the reader might expect that all slave masters would be endlessly cruel to their charges, the behavior of Master Daniel, one of Frederick’s many masters, confounds our expectations. Instead of meting out punishment, Daniel instead treats young Frederick almost as his own child, in a more protective and fatherly way by keeping him safe from others who might bully him or otherwise cause harm to Douglass. This is a surprising kind of story that the reader might not have expected coming from a former enslaved person; we might expect instead that Douglass would write/report that master Daniel behaved cruelly toward Douglass. In this way, Frederick Douglass increases his credibility on the institution of slavery with his audience by providing an illuminating unexpected story.
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