Most of the paragraphs are in chronological order, except for the first paragraph. Read these sentences from the first paragraph of the text. “Frederick Douglass was one of the first fugitive slaves to speak out publicly against slavery. On the morning of August 12, 1841, he stood up at an anti-slavery meeting on Nantucket Island. With great power and eloquence, he described his life in bondage. As soon as he finished, the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison asked the audience, ‘Have we been listening to a thing, a piece of property, or to a man?’ ‘A man! A man!’ five hundred voices replied.”

Why might the author have begun the text in this way?

A: to ask the readers to consider whether Frederick Douglass was a thing, a piece of property, or a man

B: to indicate that Frederick Douglass first began making powerful speeches at a very young age

C: to imply that Frederick Douglass’s speech on August 12, 1841 was the most important speech he ever gave

D: to immediately show readers that Frederick Douglass was a powerful voice in the abolition movement