Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Florence Kelley

In Florence Kelley’s speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she brings to light the issue of child labour in a serious and somber tone. Using pathos and persuasive rhetoric, Kelley skillfully manipulates her fellow women to become motivated to gain the right to vote in order to take action against the evils of child labour.

Kelley’s speech is filled with pathos, attempting to persuade her audience to realize the magnitude of the issue of child employment to pull the heartstrings of women. She introduces the problem as “two million children under the age of sixteen years old who are earning their bread,” showing the large number of young people currently working to earn money to make a living. She mentions that the children can vary in age from six to sixteen if the child happens to be in, a sarcastically put, “enlightened states”. Mentioning the age range of the children ensures that she can force her audience to become maternally protective of them, manipulating them to feel as if they must take some course of action in order to keep

She plays upon the fact that mothers are more defensive of younger girls to make the women feel pity for the young workers of America. Subjecting the listeners to a feeling of dejection, Kelley lists off the hours child workers are permitted to work in each state: Alabama, eight hours; North Carolina, no restriction; South Carolina, no restriction; Georgia, no restriction; New Jersey, no restriction due to a recently repealed law. Using the allusion, “pitiful privilege”, Kelley states that what the young workers, “under the sweating system”, face is the direct opposite of privilege because privilege is not the image of a thirteen year old girl in Pennsylvania working twelve hours a night without violating any