Douglass structures this chapter by moving from a general recounting of the deeds of an overseer, Mr. Gore, who was considered an exemplary slave manager in eyes of the white community, to more specific accounts of individual incidents in which slaves suffered, with an emphasis on the unprosecuted murders of slaves.
Douglass's diction is precise and erudite but clear. He writes using a balanced, eighteenth century prose style. While passion comes through in some of his word choices, such as "barbaric," the detached diction puts Douglass at a distance from what he is describing. This is an effective device, as it allows the reader space to feel the emotions Douglass steps back from. An example of his measured prose would be as follows, outlining the character of Mr. Gore:
He was cruel enough to inflict the severest punishment, artful enough to descend to the lowest trickery, and obdurate enough to be insensible to the voice of a reproving conscience.
The word choices are harsh and emotional: "cruel," "severest punishment," "lowest trickery, but encased within a detached, tri-part structure that projects objectivity and authority. Douglass wants to be taken seriously by his educated, white audience, and the writing style he adopts projects an effective, authoritative ethos.
Returning to structure, generalized statements like the one above lead the reader to wish for specific examples, and Douglass satisfies that desire in the second part of the chapter, both with a precise instance of Mr. Gore murdering a slave for a minor act of disobedience and a recounting of more incidents of slave murder by white slave owners.
This use of diction and structure helps Douglass effectively make his point about the barbarity of slavery.
The rhetorical devices and structure of Chapter 4 emphasize the brutality of slavery. The main rhetorical device used is that of verbal irony, in that Frederick Douglass praises the cruel overseer, Mr. Gore, and calls him "a first-rate overseer." Douglass writes that "Mr. Gore is just the man for such a place, and it was just the place for such a man." Douglass's statements are ironic because by being a first-rate overseer, Mr. Gore is a barbaric and horrible man. For example, the reasons he is a top-notch overseer are that he is "proud enough to demand the most debasing homage of the slave" and nasty and ambitious enough to be extremely cruel to the slaves under his control. In other words, he is good at his job because he is so mean and inhumane. Douglass's diction, or choice of words, also emphasizes Gore's cruelty and the irony of Gore's reputation as a fine overseer. Douglass chooses words that show this irony, such as describing Gore as "proud, ambitious, and persevering." These are presumably good qualities, but Gore uses them to achieve evil aims.
The structure of the chapter also achieves Douglass's aim of exposing the cruelty of slavery because after he ironically praises Mr. Gore's fineness as an overseer, Douglass shows the brutal effects of Gore's treatment of the slaves. For example, Gore whips a slave named Denby, who tries to soothe his wounds by running into a creek. When Denby refuses to come out of the creek after three calls, Gore raises his musket, "and poor Denby was no more." Douglass writes that when Gore kills Denby, "a thrill of horror flashed through every soul upon the plantation," and this example provides ample evidence of Gore's cruelty, which Douglass discusses at the beginning of the chapter.
The example of Denby can be juxtaposed with Douglass's claim in Chapter 3 that a slave never admits how much he or she hates slavery because "a still tongue makes a wise head." Any slave who complains will suffer mercilessly as a result. However, just because slaves do not complain does not mean that they do not suffer horribly, which Douglass shows in Chapter 4.
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