In Maria W. Stewart's lecture in Boston in 1832, she conveys her position on the injustices of slavery and the cruelty that slaves experiences through the use of diction, figurative language, and her own personal experience. Altogether, these create a sense of injustice and desparity for the cause of the African Americans and their freedoms and aspirations to be something more than just servile labor.
Diction is a major influence in this lecture. With a variety of words, such as "chains", "ragged", "drudgery and toil", "exhausted", "death", and "cruel", Stewart appeals to the feelings of people in an attempt to make them understand the hardships and extreme injustice that encompass the life of a slave. To continue, there is also another set …show more content…
African Americans are "confined by the chains of ignorance and poverty" despite their "high and honorable aquirements." This suggests that she thinks that slaves want to be respectable citizens and display their honorable intentions but are held down from doing so by the "chains of society." To continue, Stewart calls out the oppressive white society by mentioning that "whites have proclaimed the rights of equal rights and privileges" and that slaves have "caught the flame also." This compares how just as the white people wanted their freedom and equality from Great Britain in the American Revolution, African Americans want this as well and have caught the "flame" that ignited that desire of freedom. To continue, Stewart says that continual hard labor of being slave is "like the scorching sands of Arabia." This simile compares a slave's mind to that of the scorching sands of Arabia; nothing grows there. Through all the hard labor, it breaks the mind so that it produces nothing, just like Arabia. Lastly, Stewart says that she "can but die for expressing her sentiments ... for I am a true born America". This hyperbole suggests that despite the ravaging life of a slave, she is still a patriotic citizen. She would lay down her life for America, just as white citizens
Diction is a major influence in this lecture. With a variety of words, such as "chains", "ragged", "drudgery and toil", "exhausted", "death", and "cruel", Stewart appeals to the feelings of people in an attempt to make them understand the hardships and extreme injustice that encompass the life of a slave. To continue, there is also another set …show more content…
African Americans are "confined by the chains of ignorance and poverty" despite their "high and honorable aquirements." This suggests that she thinks that slaves want to be respectable citizens and display their honorable intentions but are held down from doing so by the "chains of society." To continue, Stewart calls out the oppressive white society by mentioning that "whites have proclaimed the rights of equal rights and privileges" and that slaves have "caught the flame also." This compares how just as the white people wanted their freedom and equality from Great Britain in the American Revolution, African Americans want this as well and have caught the "flame" that ignited that desire of freedom. To continue, Stewart says that continual hard labor of being slave is "like the scorching sands of Arabia." This simile compares a slave's mind to that of the scorching sands of Arabia; nothing grows there. Through all the hard labor, it breaks the mind so that it produces nothing, just like Arabia. Lastly, Stewart says that she "can but die for expressing her sentiments ... for I am a true born America". This hyperbole suggests that despite the ravaging life of a slave, she is still a patriotic citizen. She would lay down her life for America, just as white citizens