Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelly's Speech

Florence Kelly delivered a speech before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905. She used rhetorical analysis such as pathos, anaphora, and logos to enlist working men to vote for the reform of child labor laws. Florence Kelly tries to assert the urgency of the situation to the audience using anaphora. She remarks, “We do not wish this. We prefer to have our work done by men and women. But we are almost powerless,” (Line 78-80) this is one such example of her assertiveness towards the issue. She also directs the sentence to the women attending her speech by using the word ‘powerless’ as at that time, women did not have any voting rights and therefore no say in anything. She also

She expresses that, “North and South Carolina and Georgia place no restriction upon the work of children at night; and while we sleep little white girls will be working tonight in the mills in those states, working eleven hours at night,” (Line 27-31.) She uses the phrase ‘while we sleep’ to generate feelings of remorse among the listeners as the children work tirelessly on end while the adults are resting. She also uses the phrase ‘little white girls’ to create more sympathy as girls were seen as frail and innocent, and it creates the question ‘Why is an innocent and weak person being forced to work laboriously?’. She also states, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy,” (Line 18-22.) She uses auditory imagery in the pathos argument above for her audience to better understand the harsh conditions that the children work in. She also brings up ‘several thousand little girls’ to further accentuate the unpleasant conditions that innocent children have to go through while adults sleep obliviously at night. She also uses the ‘deafening noise of the spindles’ to make her audience imagine being in a constantly loud room and having to work with little pay and unpleasant