Rhetorical Analysis Of Frederick Douglas's Speech To The Slavery

As a former slave, Frederick Douglas had made it his responsibility to abolish slavery and to fight for equal rights for all African Americans. He accomplished this mostly through speeches he delivered to many anti-slavery organizations as well as through writings about his thoughts and feelings on slavery. On July 5, 1852, Douglas gave one his greatest speeches to a group of women of the Anti-Slavery Sewing Society in Rochester. He spoke on the ideals of the Constitution and the manner in which it has been upheld in relation to African Americans. Douglas speaks out about American slavery that is validated with the hypocritical views of the nation’s values on freedom and liberty by speaking from his own experiences as a slave, citing historical and logical information to connect to the present situation, and utilizing strong diction to heighten the emotional appeal. Douglas brings up his experiences as a former slave to describe …show more content…
It can be seen that Douglas builds on his emotion throughout the speech by using words that convey a sense of anger and urgency. With words such as “gross injustice”, “deception”, “disgrace”, and “revolting”, Douglas is able to display how much anger he is feeling towards the country in how they are treating African Americans. He wants his audience to know that he will use “the severest language [he] can command” so they understand the depth of the problems and how quickly it should be resolved (Douglas, 41). By using such harsh words, Douglas is able to invoke in his audience emotions that he himself feels towards the situation at hand. He wants to stir up in his audience feelings towards the government that does not advocate attacking them but rather invoke feelings that causes them to move to positive action. In this way Douglas connects with his audience and is able to effectively persuade