Analysis Of Emmeline's Speech On Freedom Or Death

Emmeline was an English militant activist who led a suffragist movement that struggled to get the female voting right. She was a very famous and organised many meetings where she used to give speeches. During the Victorian period, England was characterised for cultural and political changes and started to develop a very important suffragist activity. Pankhurst even travelled to America, searching for more supporters if the cause.

On November 13, 1913, at Hartford, Connecticut (US), Emmeline held one of her greatest speech, known as “Freedom or death”. The text was written and delivered by

herself and pretended to draw the attention of all assistant to her conference, including men; obviously, by the nature of relationship, she was mainly

Pankhurst exposes that men can decide what their future looks like, but even though “women are human beings”, they have no decision, they are helpless and cannot fight because of the society status of women.

With “But let the men of Hartford imagine…” paragraph, she pretended to gain the support of men there, highlighting that war (as we historically understand ) is an obsolete method, and the suffragettes use a more innovating form of fighting. She also takes this opportunity to make reference to the “Boston Tea Party”, and appeals to the local pride reminding them their fight for the independence, and that that is what women are doing now. The Tea Party was an important event in American history that took place in 1773, at Boston Harbour, when Britain enacted the Tea Act, consisting in apply a tax to several imported products to the British colonialists in America. As a protest, ships full of tea were boycotted and the loads were thrown over board, not without violent struggles. Even though many people died, this is considered a precedent of the American War of Independence