Rhetorical Analysis Of Frederick Douglas's Speech

In the Rochester city’s celebration for the National Day of 1852, the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglas gave a speech in which he severely criticized the citizens’ hypocritical actions of celebrating their independence, ignoring the oppressive and unjust slavery that millions in the nation were suffering to. In his speech, Douglas achieved the audience’s agreement on his claim by employing commonly admitted allusions, contrast of two subjects and subtle but efficient word choices.

In the speech, Douglas discloses the contradiction between the normal citizens’ gratification and the slaves’ expulsion from this happiness to aim a provocative satire on the national day, which carries the white’s pride and ecstasy and the black’s suffer and

In the beginning of the speech, Douglas questions how “your national independence” is “extended to us?” considering even “the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice” expel the black slaves. He sets forth this statement in order to call for the audience’s awareness of the prohibition of the many African American from the very freedom and justice that the citizens are celebrating for. By using the pronoun “you” referring to the free citizens and “we” to the black slaves, Douglas aggregates his sarcasm to the to the contradiction and even alienation between the unfortunate black slaves and the delighted American citizens. Later in his speech, Douglas furthers his attack to the ironic circumstances between white and black by bringing up their common nature as mankind and that men should be treated equally in paragraph 7, 8 and 9 (e.g., Douglas mentions that “Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? That he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it.”), where he thoroughly criticizes his audience by keeping with the emotional pronoun “you” referring to themb but a less sentimental yet more unbiased and rational third-person pronoun “ he/him” to the sympathized