A Rhetorical Analysis of a free negro’s “Blood and Slavery”
At the outset of his speech the free negro insists he has the authority to talk about the malevolent force of slavery by describing himself as, “that unfortunate race of men who are distinguished from the rest of the human species by a black skin and woolly hair,” implying that his life has been trampled upon by society’s perception of blacks as inferior and that he was previously impressed into the wicked practice of slavery. He then proceeds these social constructs of oppression by illustrating his points through a barrage of rhetorical questions, pointing out the injustices and logical fallacies by asking, “Can it be contended that a difference