What rhetorical choices (concerning style or word choice, for eaxample) does the author make? How do these choices help to convey the meaning of the text?

Douglass uses a high level vocabulary - benevolent when describing Mrs. Auld and depravity when describing qualities which are not innate to her, but which must become part of her life when she can no longer tutor Frederick - which can make his message more credible to those in more powerful positions. The meaning, which includes the desire to show that slaves should be freed, is important because one belief about slaves was that they lacked intelligence. Douglass shows, through his competent writing, that such an assumption is simply not true.