Temple Of Liberty Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

Even the men who are in the Northern States who are black are not free. Douglass points out that “blacks are easily likely to face the death penalty for one crime, where white people would face punishment if they did the crime twice,” This, according to Douglass is slavery. This can be seen even today in our news and society. Many blacks are targeted and attacked solely based on their appearance, and experience many micro-aggressions. Douglass also says, “Do not need to argue about what is wrong with robbing these Negros from their liberty keep them ignorant from their relations to other men?” This speech truly emphasizes the inhumane, cruelty, and injustice associated with the treatment of blacks in America. While the whites look at the 4th of July as a celebratory to their lives and freedom, not everyone is truly free. It is important for Douglass to show that while many associate this holiday with prosperity and positive attributes, the blacks face slavery, prejudices, and unequal treatments day-to-day. “What is inhumane cannot be divine”, says Douglass. Later on in the speech, he talks

This is hypocritical in that the white men make these values and traditions a staple of their lives, yet when it comes to slaves, they seem to go away. He also believes that, though he will use “the severest language”(Douglass) he can, he firmly believes that “not one word shall escape me that any man whose… not blinded by prejudice, or… a slave-holder, shall not confess to be right and just”(Douglass). So he sincerely believes that the average human being also knows that the treatment of slaves is unjust and unethical, but they choose not to act on these thoughts. His view, coming from the eyes and thoughts of slaves across America, show how hypocritical the nation actually is in both one sided values and not acting upon their knowledge that what is going on is wrong.

According to Douglass, “They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to” (Douglass, 150). Douglass saw similarities between the struggles of the forefathers and black slaves, and he compelled his audience to recognize these similarities and follow the example of the forefathers.

The “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is an autobiography in which Frederick Douglass reflects on his life as a slave in America. He writes this book as a free slave, in the North, while slavery was still running its course before the Civil War. Through his effective use of rhetorical strategies, Frederick Douglass argues against the institution of slavery by appealing to pathos and ethos, introducing multiple anecdotes, using satirical irony, and explaining the persuasive effects of slavery and reasoning behind keeping slaves uneducated.

By supporting the Revolutionaries actions to break free from British Rule, Douglass alluded to the similar fight that the American population faced to attain the same liberty that white citizens had. With the same courage the Founding Fathers had to create a free country, the American generation of 1852 faced a similar test to uphold the values of the Declaration of Independence, and liberate American slaves.7 After applauding the Founding Fathers, Douglass acknowledges that the emphasis of his speech is not to give praise, but to call on America to act on it’s own failures and begin to faithfully fulfill the nations oath.8 He asks his audience, “Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us [African Americans]?”9 This rhetorical question Douglass presents, challenges America to reevaluate what they are truly celebrating on the Fourth of July, for it is surely not the freedom in which they claim to have achieved. Douglass asserts that asking black people to rejoice in the “shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery”10 and do not respect the courage, and steps the Founding Fathers took to create a free, liberated nation.11

He tells them that slavery is in contradiction of what the founding fathers valued and believed in, as well as what they fought for. Frederick says the founding fathers believed in freedom and equality. The same things they fought to get away from, are the same things white Americans were doing to African Americans in that present time. He says in his speech, “Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit earnestly sought redress,” (404). This quote is an example of how the founding fathers were feeling under England’s government, and how Frederick Douglass was relating it to how blacks were getting treated and how they felt throughout the United States in that present time. He wanted white Americans to recognize how they were portraying their nation. Another way he gets his audience to recognize what they were doing was wrong was by using their emotions to trigger shame and disappointment within themselves. Mr. Douglass shames them by comparing them to their founding fathers, who they look up to and celebrated. He says in the speech, “You live and must die, and you must do your own work…You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence,” (407), to shame his audience on not carrying on the principles and morals that the founding fathers worked so hard to gain. Another example of him guilting his audience is when he

On July 4, 1852, former slave and American abolitionist, Frederick Douglass is invited to speak before an abolitionist audience in Rochester, New York. Although the speech should address the greatness and freedom of the nation on independence day, Frederick Douglass uses his platform to display his displeasure with the meaning of freedom in white America. Therefore, the sole purpose of his speech is to unmask the hypocrisy of a nation who dares celebrate freedom and independence while keeping African American slaves. To Douglass, the 4th of July is a constant reminder of the unfairness of the political and social core of the nation. As a social activist and most importantly a former slave, Frederick Douglass uses multiple rhetorical strategies to indict America on the immoral practice of slavery.

Through his crafty use of rhetoric, Douglass delivered a scathing attack on the hypocrisy of America in his self-referential speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.” The speech articulated his passionate pursuit for liberty and equal rights. Douglass’s speech passionately argued that in the eyes of the slave and even the “free” black

Noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in his self titled slave narrative addresses the indescribable sadness that the slaves were experiencing, which they portrayed through song. He intensely describes the emotions that he hears within the songs of the slaves. In the passage Douglass shows how the slaves believe that they feel, versus how they really feel, and he does this this by changing the tone throughout the passage. He uses these tones to make the reader fully feel the helplessness that the slaves feel and recognize the effects that slavery had on people.

Douglass continues to talk about how they all came to celebrate the fourth of July, but to remember that the nation is still young and has room for positive change. Douglass then asks this question, "Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” (p.407) By us Douglas is meaning blacks. This is supported by when he states that, “This Fourth of July is yours not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” (p.408) Slaves and former slaves like Douglass are only saddened on Independence Day because they still have no independence to cheer for. They were lied to and taken for granted after all the work they did to earn equal rights. To ask black people to celebrate the White man’s freedom is only teasing and disrespectful irony.

On July 5th 1852, Frederick Douglass, one of history’s outstanding public speakers, carried out a very compelling speech at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York. Within that moment of time where the freedom of Americans was being praised and celebrated, he gathered the nation to clear up the tension among slavery and the establishment of the country’s goals. Frederick Douglass’s speech mentions the development of the young nation, the Revolution, and his own life experience. While speaking, his main subject was seen to be American slavery. The “Fourth of July Oration” was a commendable model of Frederick Douglass’s affection and engagement towards the freedom of individuals. Frederick Douglass’s speech left an impact on his audience

Frederick Douglas wrote this speech when he was invited to speak at an Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York on July 5. It is both a praise of the country for its ideals of liberty and a condemnation for the violation of those ideals in the practice of slavery. Douglas sees the “inconsistencies” or the hypocrisies of his nation as something that doesn’t need to be constantly explained because in his eyes they should be obvious. Instead, Douglas looks not to what those hypocrisies are but what they do. He uses words like “destroy” and “corrupt” and “saps” in order to bring about the image of something decaying and withering away, intending for the audience to see slavery as something that will cause the breakdown of a society like America which values liberty so much. The existence of a contradiction as

Although the warrants for the grounds are implied, it is reasonable to make the following inferential connections between the claim and grounds. American slavery is in a hypocrisy because Americans believe slaves should celebrate independence when slaves do not have it themselves. The speaker, Douglass, is trying to distinguish hypocrisy within

As stated by Professor Martin, the idea of ‘granting freedom to slaves’ cannot solely be rhetorically established in the halls of Congress; it is a constant grapple for dignity and respect that needs to be actualized, impelled and perceived. A book named “To’ Joy to My Freedom,” by Tera W. Hunter, delineates how the process of “destructing slavery was accomplished with the participation of slaves themselves, not just by military maneuvers or decisions promulgated in the White House.” In the most thoughtful

The first reason Douglass’ text is distinctly an American writing is chattel slavery exists only in the Americas. A standout amongst the most predominant topics in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass also another slave accounts by others, is that of inequality. In spite of the fact that Douglass endeavors to show how African American slaves are basically individuals like their white partners, there are various cases in which it is demonstrated that a number of whites did not acknowledge slaves as genuinely human. Frederick Douglass sees the gross racial disparities at an early age and notes, “I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time,