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

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Throughout American history there has been a struggle on who deserves to have more freedoms, or it everybody should be equally treated. In “Declaration of Sentiments of the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she shares her viewpoint on how women are treated less than men and they do not get as many freedoms. In “What to The Slave is The Fourth of July?” by Frederick Douglass talks about the inequalities between whites and African- Americans. Douglass explains this by using emotion to connect with the audience. Both Stanton and Douglass are very persuasive when giving their speeches. For those who did not get the same freedoms as everybody else never stopped fighting for what they believed in. In both these speeches …show more content…

Douglass gave a speech called, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?.”. Douglass delivered this speech on July 5th, 1852 about how the Fourth of July makes African- Americans feel. Douglass uses rhetorical questions to get the audience to reflect, and get them to start thinking about the Fourth of July. Throughout the speech Douglass refers to the country as “yours”, he never says “ours” or “we”, this creates a distinction between himself and the audience. Douglass does not feel like he can call the country as his own. When asking the audience what the Fourth of July means to them, Douglass responds with, “a day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim” (4). Douglass feels that on the Fourth of July, African-Americans are reminded that the world is unfair and unjust. Like Stanton, Douglass fights for what is right, and pushes to have a country where all people are treated equally and where everybody respects each other. Douglass states, “There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery, “The arm of the Lord is not shortened”, and the doom of slavery is certain”(5). Douglass is hopeful that the world will turn around and in the future inequality will be gone for good. Both Stanton and Douglass are calling out the country for being hypocritical. The country is supposed to be created

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