How does Frederick Douglass use imagery in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself?

Douglass uses animal imagery to reveal the dehumanizing effects of slavery in both slaveholders and slaves, particularly in the rural context of the plantation, where slaves were chattel, similar to domesticated animals. Douglass uses similes (such as describing the young children feeding at a trough as being "like so many pigs") and association (as in Chapter Eight, when Douglass describes the slaves' experience at the valuation as being ' 'on the same rank in scale" of "horses, sheep and swine"). Douglass clearly states that slaves were not only viewed as being animals, but they also lived in conditions that reinforced that stereotype.