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

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In the speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, Frederick Douglass makes the claim that America, because it practices slavery, has not lived up to its ideals of independence, freedom, and liberty—shown clearly on the Fourth of July, where the free man can celebrate, but the slave must mourn because it reminds him of the freedom he does not have. Douglass uses the rhetorical devices of repetition and logos to prove and provide support toward his claim. First, Douglass uses repetition, specifically parallelism, to prove his claim. This rhetorical device can be seen clearly in the speech: “America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.” Douglass’ repetition—in parallel structure—of

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