Is anyone surprised that Douglass repeatedly calls up the image of chains in a speech about slavery? We're not. Chains are often used to symbolize slavery, in all kinds of contexts.

Douglass mentions his former "chains of servitude" (9) and how Americans seem to want to "drag a man in fetters" (21) in to talk to them about liberty. But, he says, as he tries to speak, he hears "the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous" (25) render him unable to speak about freedom except in the context of slavery.

Douglass' listeners would have been familiar with the imagery of chains from abolitionist literature and the popular "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" medallion. (Check out our "Compare and Contrast" section for more.)

They also would have been familiar with nationalist rhetoric that showed America breaking free of the chains of Mother England, so Douglass makes his chains imagery work double time to remind listeners both of their own freedom…and the lack of it for slaves.