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Slaves In Frederick Douglass's The Hypocrisy Of American Slavery

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Slavery-- in laconic terms-- is the censuring, and antipathy of a human just due to their skin color. It is macroscopic and patent that it is wrong but nobody will admit it. In The Hypocrisy of American Slavery, Frederick Douglass talks about the current state of the US and why The 4th of July means nothing to him. He is trying to convince the American people that celebrating the freedom of their country is ironic because everyone is not free as they claim. Overall, Douglass uses Word Choice, Emotional, and Ethical Appeal to support his claim that there should be no celebrating being a free country when all of the country is not free. First, Douglass uses Word Choice as a way to bring out the shame and guilt that people should feel instead of happiness especially on the 4th of July. In the quote: “... Fourth of July?... a day that reveals to …show more content…

They know this because they have witnessed it at least once in their life but they still do not do anything about it. Douglass also uses the quote “Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.”(Par 3) Douglass’ use of the words “your” and “us” shows how dichotomized the black and white societies are. This makes the American people feel wrong for what they have done and realize that they are being amoral because they are saying that this is the United States of America when it is really not all United. He is trying to show to them that they are really lying to themselves--and when they do that--nobody will trust them or believe that they can change because they are not willing to change. In the quote “We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake”, Douglass

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