Rhetorical Analysis Of What To The Slaves Is The Fourth Of July

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Source
Fredrick Douglass, “What to the Slaves is the Fourth of July?” Selected Speeches and Writings (Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 1999), pg 188-206
About the Author
Fredrick Douglass, an African-American who escaped from slavery to become a leader of the abolitionist movement and antislavery writing.
Summary
The 4th of July, the date for national independence of United States forms the larger part of the document and post-independence vices like slavery and factors of that time that supported this vice.
Significance
At a time when slave trade was at its peak, Africans deprived of all their privileges like for example freedom of expression, movement, right to earn wages and many more deprived from them by the whites, Fredrick Douglass speech was very important at that time. It not only spoke for the millions of slaves that could not raise a voice or be heard under any circumstances but was an eye opener to the rest of the public about this vice, slavery. The document was also instrumental in exposing factors that enabled this vice to thrive at that time. The church was put on the spot light for preaching empty gospel and seemed to be in complete support of this vice. Fredrick also pointed an accusing finger to the government of the day for feeling comfortable with current situation and used the constitution to illustrate that what …show more content…
To the Americans, life was rosy. They were enjoying independence from the British crown. United States of America governed its self under its colonies and was not subjects to the British rule. Despite this being the situation at that time, the Africans had nothing to celebrate. Their rights and privileges compromised, and forced to work on the whites’ lands with no wages explains just how life was tough for them. The presence of tough rules that would condemn the blacks to death and the corrupt judiciary system that sided with the whites made life even
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