The entire preface can be considered a classic example of a rhetorical essay, complete with an introduction to the subject (Douglass-as-slave), arguments against slavery (on moral, judicial, scientific, and religious grounds), and a call to arms. William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) was a journalist, social reformer, and a leading figure in the abolitionist movement, and his preface can be seen as an excellent rhetorical strategy for the entire work because it is an endorsement of Douglass' story, as well as for the veracity of the Narrative. There were many skeptics from both the North and South who did not believe that an escaped, uneducated slave could have written such a narrative, nor did they believe the detailed atrocities that were said to exist in the slave states.
Garrison's reference to Patrick Henry is an attempt to raise Douglass to the level of a great American patriot—that is, the freedoms that Douglass is fighting for are the same freedoms that the early American revolutionaries wanted for themselves. Garrison argues that slaves are human beings who must be given the same rights afforded to other Americans. Garrison brings up an example of an enslaved white American, arguing that slavery reduces the reasoning powers of all humans—regardless of race. He does this as a pre-emptive argument against those who would propose that Africans are intellectually inferior (and that, accordingly, slave-holders are actually "taking care" of them as they would their livestock). Garrison argues that slaves are just like other human beings and thus they must be given the same legal protection as whites have. The inequality of blacks under the law makes the entire slave system unjustifiable. Garrison proclaims that if America truly believes in democracy, justice, and equality, then slavery cannot exist within this system. On a final note, Garrison makes a powerful call to action for all Christians to resist the slave system; he concludes that those who are truly on the side of God must also be against slavery.
