Many people cannot argue the severity of these two narrative accounts. Both narratives left us with mind scarring images and stomach churning feelings as we read the two narratives. However, we can argue how Douglas's explanation was more impacting and sincere than Las Casas report. The explanation Douglas gave was a first hand experience, Las Casas" was merely a report of horrendous events going on in the Indies. The basis of my hypothesis of Douglas" sincerity can be proven through examples and interpretations from Douglas's narrative.
Douglas was a badly scarred human being, both emotionally and physically. He experienced the hardships of hatred and the pain of slavery. Throughout his life he was continuously beaten and put down by the more dominating white race. Las Casas on the other hand did not experience the beatings or the pain directly. The timeline of Douglas's painful life began when he was an innocent child. .
In chapter one, Douglas starts of by telling us about his twisted childhood memories. He starts off by telling us where he was born and proceeds to explain how he has no accurate knowledge of his age. This is very effective in priming the audience's sympathetic senses. Las Casas would simply give detailed descriptions with no feeling behind them. In the second paragraph of chapter one, Douglas uses an ingenious technique. He talks about how black his mother was and compares her complexion to that of other slaves. Douglas then states, "My father was a white man." (Douglas, 1) He effectively starts the tale of his hard and unfair life.
One of the hard and unfair events of Douglas" life was when he was abruptly taken from the care of his mother. He makes use feel downright horrible and then leaves us gasping when he tells us of his mother's death. Las Casas frequently talked about death, however his report did not get into the personal part of it. He did not talk about victim's family or their emotional expressions.