Rhetorical Analysis Of What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July

It was evident that Frederick Douglass, in his speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July," did not share the same joyous feelings as his nation did on that celebrated day in the 1800s due to his firm beliefs that America is filled with hypocritical leaders and citizens and thus deserves no adoration from him, a black man who escaped slavery, or from the people who share his ethnicity as well as his beliefs. According to Douglass, slaves cannot partake in this joyous celebration because it is a false celebration. Douglass touches on the fact that Americans claim all men are equal and yet it does not offer the same rights to a black man as it does to a white man. He therefore wrote his speech in a way that would encourage women to view the hypocrisy in America so that they may fight in favor of the slaves. Douglass’s text is effective in persuading his intended audience that although America has proclaimed it is a place filled with liberty and independence, not every one of its’ citizens can share the celebration on the Fourth of July because of its hypocritical standpoint and such argument is supported through Douglass’s use of rhetorical questions, tone, logos, and through …show more content…
Uncle Tom’s Cabin had been published earlier that year which caused even greater controversy about slavery as did the Fugitive Slave Act because it brought forward the truth behind America’s hypocrisy. It added fuel to the fire that was burning across the nation and thus overall benefitted Douglass’s argument which was that black men are not free as white men are and are therefore not a white man’s equal despite what America states in the Declaration of