What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July a Rhetorical Analysis

In a similar vain to his open letter to Thomas Auld, Douglass furthered his attempts to make aware of the cruelties of slavery with his speech, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”. The speech starts as a patriotic applause to the great efforts America went through to gain independence. The definition of “an American” and the overall ideology of what America stood for is what is established in the beginning and ending of Douglass’s speech. He emphasizes the importance of freedom, democracy, and equal rights and how those qualities have become synonymous with America, therefore becoming the values of America. He alludes to the signers of the Constitution and how “they went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government

This document was presented in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852. Frederick Douglass had been invited to speak about what the Fourth of July means for America's black population. It is noteworthy to take in Douglass considered himself a citizen, a reflection of the people in the audience. Throughout his life Douglass endorsed equal justice and rights, as well as citizenship for African Americans. Furthermore, during his speech he points out the nation is like a young child, still impressionable and capable of positive change. As a result I believe this to be a sarcastic remark on our country because we have yet to mature to get rid of slavery. Which then builds up to him revealing later on that his true purpose for speaking is slavery, confronting America for being untrue to its founding principles, its past, and

Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and slavery abolitionist, addressed this speech to the population of the United States of America to portray the terrible mistreatment of slaves and the steps needed to be taken in order to stop this. He claims that the mistreatment shown towards these hard-working individuals called slaves is the worst action that the universe has ever seen. They get no respect and are used as property to do endless work for their masters. On the fourth of July, these slaves do not get the same sense of liberty, justice, and freedom, instead they are not respected and do not receive the same, equal rights granted to all members of our country. Nobody in the United States is standing

The rhetorical purpose of Frederick Douglass’ speech was to question why African Americans should celebrate freedom when they are still under oppression. Douglass begins talking about the signers of the Declaration of Independence and praises them for what they accomplished, but what Douglass wants is his listeners to continue the work of the Declaration of Independence signers who brought democracy and freedom to this country. Douglass questions the spectators, "Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us (6-7)?” and then follows with, "This Fourth July is yours, not mine (18-19)." Douglass says to have an African American celebrate white people’s freedom

Douglass then states the case that he is not included in the blessings of American freedom. He also states that the justice, liberty, and independence received by our fathers are shared by the audience but not himself. He then says that the Fourth of July is theirs not his stating that while they rejoice he mourns. This then leads him to discuss the subject of American slavery. He then talks about slavery from a slave 's point of view. He says that America has never looked darker than on this 4th of July. Whether discussing about the past or present this nation showed a class of evil conduct. He himself who was once a slave states that American slavery is the great sin and shame of America. He argues how a slave should be considered a man like another and

Frederick Douglass writes his speeches in a way that makes the audience jump. He writes them with true feeling and power, which can only be accomplished by a person who has felt these many times in their life. Douglass’ Fourth of July speech, talks about him being a slave for the majority of his life, and how he is unable to relate to the joy felt by the rest of the Americans on the Fourth of July. He is “not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary!” and believes the Rochester Ladies Society, whom he is talking to’s “high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between” him and them, because his whole life Douglass wasn’t free and now can be taken back to slavery at any moment. By saying this,

During the early 1850’s there were more than four million African Americans enslaved in the United States of America. One of those slaves was Frederick Douglass who was born into slavery in 1818. After Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 he writes the speech “What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?.” In “What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?,” Douglass utilizes imagery, tone, and syntax in order to show the dehumanization of slaves and human rights. Douglass uses his own experience of being a slave to fight against the institution of slavery.

In the middle of the 1800s the topic of slavery was heating up debates around the United States of America. Frederick Douglass was one of the more influential debaters, molding the English language to support his positions. In “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July”, Douglass makes a powerful argument by utilizing logic to prove that his audience already agrees with him, by employing emotional stories to pull at the audience’s heartstrings, and finishing with a touch of credibility that no one could argue.

“ What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” was and is most likely the most famous fugitive speech in national history. It produced a different message than other abolitionary speeches produced. Douglass criticized the American holiday of the Fourth of July basically stating it was a self-righteous. While he accolades the former American founders and applauses there hard work and formation of the Declaration of Independence, he stays on track and states that the current and future American’s must keep working to preserve their freedom and expand it, more specifically to the enslaved American’s. He believed in the way the American Revolution played out and they way the revolutionary colonists did achieve their goal of freedom as he states in his sermon. While he cares deeply about the previous American revolutions and the state of the country to be the best and most powerful country while living up to it’s potential, his main importance in this speech was slavery. He pressed many times in his speech on his opinion of slavery. He believes that American is untrue to their word of “freedom”. He states that the country is untrue if you decide to go back to their earlier foundation of laws and ideas. Obviously, before the American Revolution, the colonies wanted freedom from the British. It can be compared that the enslaved American are to colonists as the post revolutionary American citizens are to the British. Douglass says in his speech that the country must follow through from what they previous founding fathers believed in and it must be achieved. To summarize, Douglass concludes that the American are hypocrites in relation to their idealism of

When the African-American man Frederick Douglass wrote his famous speech, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”, America was in a time of great distress. It was the year 1852, and the view of abolitionists was quickly spreading. It was the time of both provocative literatures such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as well as important resolutions, such as the Dredd Scott decision, showing the contrast between views at the time, both positive and negative towards slavery. Frederick Douglass was a freed African-American who bought his way out of slavery, serving as an inspiration to other slaves. His speech, being an immensely mocking jeremiad, bitterly laments the state of the American society and

In Frederick Douglass speech "What to the Slave is 4th of July?", he is basically speaking for the women. He explaining to them that is not right and what the 4th of July really about, which he say is “the birthday of National Independence and of your political freedom”. He wrote out how he felt because he feel like standing in their presence basically is nothing to them with his little experiences. He do not think he have the power of speech to speak in front of a crowd. This speech hold hypocrisy in it because Frederick Douglass talking about freedom and independence of people but yet there was still legally 4 million slaves national. (Civil War Era)

"What To The Slave Is The 4th Of July?” (Douglass) Speech made by Fredrick Douglass expressed his will to make a difference in the world, before slavery was abolished by Abraham Lincoln. Both were striking speech on discrimination.

Douglass’ argumentative, and contentious dialogue used that day was teeming with rhetorical questions. He would go on to query his audience, all the while knowing full well that he was the only one to be speaking on that day. No one would be uttering a syllable that day. This was his time. His questions were not questions but instead a method used to get his point across. How could anyone justify the atrocities that African Americans endured? He points his finger at everyone in society that stood idly by with their heads buried in sand. He speaks of perplexity and bewilderment over the notion that he was asked to deliver a speech on the 4th of July. Douglass comes across as insulted at this request, however: it is apparent he would not have passed up this opportunity to castigate his captive listeners, not for all diamonds in the world.

Abolitionist, author and orator, Frederick Douglass, was a former slave who escaped his owner when he was 20 years old and became an anti-slavery activist traveling around speaking to crowds of people to end slavery. In the book, Give Me Liberty, author, Eric Foner discusses his importance stating that “…[He] went on to become the most influential African-American of the nineteenth century and the nation’s preeminent advocate of racial equality” (312). In one of his famous speeches in 1853, “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July”, Douglass speaks about what the Fourth of July means to the African American population. While the beginning on the speech he praises the founding fathers for starting this country, but he quickly starts to question the legitimacy of their word when it comes to human rights. The question is asked, “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?” and he used moral suasion to remind his listeners of the hypocrisy of the Declaration of Independence (DOI) and how the promise stated in the document about equal liberty did not pertain to African Americans as long as slavery was still present.

Frederick Douglass was a freed slave in the 1800’s who was famous for his ability to read and write, uncommon of a black man at the time. On July 4th, 1852, he gave a speech to citizens of the United States. In this speech, he called out the “hypocrisy of the nation”(Douglass), questioning the nation's treatment of slaves on a supposed day of independence. Frederick Douglass effectively uses rhetorical strategies to construct his argument and expose the hypocrisy of the nation.