Frederick Douglass directly conveys the purpose and his opinion of the topic his is presenting during his speech by having two …show more content…
Throughout the entire speech Douglas asks his audience a variety of rhetorical questions for various reasons, one of the main reasons is to ask if freedom is extended to African Americans, he states Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? To break down the quote more thoroughly Douglas is basically asking the audience if blacks (“us”) have the same political freedoms that whites have are which are stated in the Declaration of Independence. Which basically he’s basically looking for the answer “no”. Douglas states a powerful and symbolic metaphors about the happiness of whites,but death of blacks. He states “The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me.” This quote is basically comparing sunlight to a whip because while sunlight has brought a sense of authority to whites, it hurts and maltreats