What to the Slave is the 4th of July, a speech given by Frederick Douglass on July 5th, 1852 in Rochester, New York, is Douglass’s attempt to show his audience why the ideas celebrated by Americans during the Fourth of July are inconsistent with their practice of slavery. Douglass fills the first part of his speech with patriotic rhetoric meant to praise the ideals of the founding fathers. Then shifting his tone, Douglass discusses how the same concepts brought up in the first part of his speech are viewed through the lens of a slave. He begins to list nearly every patriotic tradition, concept, and ideal that the audience identifies with and reveals the exclusive, rotten nature of those concepts. By wedding the corruption of American ideals
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Although the definition of his task is not clear at the point of the speech where he states this, after reading through the entirety of the speech, it can be understood to be in reference to the task of convincing his audience that slavery is unjust. He admits that the “performance” aspect of his speech, the dramatic shift in tone meant to connect the corrosion of American ideals to the continuation of slavery, is necessary to carry out his task effectively. Applying Douglass’s speech to rhetorical strategies in general, one can see the necessity of taking the audience into account when creating a speech advocating for an unwelcome opinion. By theorizing what preconceptions the audience may have beforehand, as Douglass did, one can figure out how to dispel those preconceptions and make the audience susceptible to the opinion. In Douglass’s case, convincing an American audience that one of their long-held practices is not only wrong, but also invalidates all of their other ideals, is a difficult task to accomplish on a day immediately following a celebration of American tradition. Despite this, by actually using the fact that his speech coincided with the Fourth of July in his favor, Douglass presents a highly persuasive argument to an audience who he understands will be difficult to
Although the definition of his task is not clear at the point of the speech where he states this, after reading through the entirety of the speech, it can be understood to be in reference to the task of convincing his audience that slavery is unjust. He admits that the “performance” aspect of his speech, the dramatic shift in tone meant to connect the corrosion of American ideals to the continuation of slavery, is necessary to carry out his task effectively. Applying Douglass’s speech to rhetorical strategies in general, one can see the necessity of taking the audience into account when creating a speech advocating for an unwelcome opinion. By theorizing what preconceptions the audience may have beforehand, as Douglass did, one can figure out how to dispel those preconceptions and make the audience susceptible to the opinion. In Douglass’s case, convincing an American audience that one of their long-held practices is not only wrong, but also invalidates all of their other ideals, is a difficult task to accomplish on a day immediately following a celebration of American tradition. Despite this, by actually using the fact that his speech coincided with the Fourth of July in his favor, Douglass presents a highly persuasive argument to an audience who he understands will be difficult to