Maria W. Stewart's Rhetorical Summary

In an excerpt from a lecture delivered in Boston in 1832, Maria W. Stewart uses many rhetorical strategies such as formal diction, appeal to pathos, and long syntax structures to initiate the “drudgery” labor that affects the society. Throughout the excerpt, Stewart uses extended syntax structure to communicate and educate her audience about the hardship that laborers go through. The use of semicolons allows her to issue the importance of liberty that they have been “crying” for. “Worn out with the toil and fatigue; nature herself becomes almost exhausted”; the semicolons supports her teaching on hard labor and how it can go on and on. Nonetheless, Stewart uses extended syntax as a way to indistinctly generate an idea that the “crying for liberty” coming from the laborers are exhausting and is going on forever. …show more content…
In particular, Stewart initiates words such as “ gladly hail death”, “ chains of ignorance”, and “poverty” to educate her audience about the realities of slavery. Also, to give a realization of the inequality that the laborers enslaved are facing compared to “few white persons of either sex”. Stewart is straightforward about her position by educating, however, she showed great solicitude. In lines 17, “..for I am a true born American; your blood flows in my veins, and your spirit fires my breast”, suggests that she is relating to the laborers because a “true born American” do not deserve the inequality put upon