Question

read the excerpt from narrative of the life of frederick douglass. i was eager to hear any one speak of slavery. i was a ready listener. every little while, i could hear something about the abolitionists. it was some time before i found what the word meant. it was always used in such connections as to make it an interesting word to me. if a slave ran away and succeeded in getting clear, or if a slave killed his master, set fire to a barn, or did any thing very wrong in the mind of a slaveholder, it was spoken of as the fruit of abolition. hearing the word in this connexion very often, i set about learning what it meant. the dictionary afforded me little or no help. i found it was \the act of abolishing;\ but then i did not know what was to be abolished. here i was perplexed. douglasss purpose in this excerpt is to: argue against abolition; explain his discovery of abolition; teach the history of abolition; define the word \abolition.\

Explanation:

Douglass describes his eagerness to understand the word "abolition" and his process of discovery. He was not arguing against it, teaching its history, or simply defining the word in a traditional sense. He was sharing how he came to learn about abolition.

Answer:

explain his discovery of abolition