A Speech Given By Frederick Douglass Essay free essay sample

, Research Paper FREDERICK DOUGLASS S POWERS OF APPEAL After his flight from bondage, Frederick Douglass chose to advance the abolishment of bondage by talking about the actions and effects that result from that establishment. In an extract from a July 5, 1852 address at Rochester, New York, Douglass asks the inquiry: What to the slave is the Fourth of July? This inquiry is a bold one, and it demands attending. The effectivity of his oration is derived from the personal entreaties in which he engages the hearer. At one time in this address, Douglass entreaties to his hearers spiritual inclinations. He asks his audience, am I, hence, called upon to convey our low offering to the national communion table ( 441 ) . Religious entreaty is so of import because the bulk of his audience is Christian, and he implies that Christianity, in its apparent pureness, allows the mishandling of human life to the grade of bondage. By associating Christianity straight to slavery, his hearers must oppugn the cogency of their Christian philosophies in relation to the establishment of bondage. In making so, they must extinguish their credence of one of these traditions ; the odds are that Christianity holds a much more loyal following than bondage, in which instance bondage will be given up as a pattern. Douglass besides quotes from Psalms 137:1-6, and the farcical construct that slave owners expect their slaves to be joyous in their province of bondage is the indispensable significance of the transition he chooses as it relates to the comparable state of affairs of the Babylonians prisoners ( 442 ) . His persuasive entreaty in this instance is the impression that any pious Christian would hold understanding for the lamenting prisoners and disdain for the capturers in the Psalms transition. If this premise is right, so the same pious Christians certainly should recognize the state of affairs of the slaves on this twenty-four hours and every other. Additionally, in inquiring this inquiry, he asserts instantly that the significance of the Fourth of July is wholly different from that of the free, white American. Douglass concedes that the Whites of America had ground to rejoice: the rich heritage of justness, autonomy, prosperity, and independency ( 441 ) . However, he besides illustrates that there are merely as many grounds for slaves to contemn the traditional significance of the Fourth of July. Furthermore, these grounds are every bit important as they are plentiful. Douglass asserts that the really grounds why Independence Day is of import to the Whites are the same rights that are denied of the slaves, doing the slaves deficiency of those privileges the major lending factor to their abomination of the vacation. Therefore, non merely are slaves justified in denouncing the Fourth of July as a jubilation of freedom, those that are free to bask the rights associated with Independence Day should besides experience black that aut onomy is honored because the same personal freedom that the settlers fought for in the Revolutionary War are cruelly non permitted in the instance of the slave. In this sense, the entreaty is to those who are apathetic or opposed to bondage ; it is directed toward their sense of national pride and intended to expose the Fourth of July as a fake. The manner in which Douglass engages his audience is besides effectual in favour of his statement. He straight and indirectly involves them in his rhetoric. But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say is a direct attack to the hearers ; he personalizes the address in this manner ( 443 ) . In this transition, he recognizes that many sceptics of abolishment want for more positive statement than negative. In recognizing this, Douglass goes on to demo the sceptics how that impression is incorrect because there is no positive statement that could consequence alteration in the bondage system. Additionally, he entreaties to the audience by inquiring inquiries meant to exemplify the fact that he does non desire to diss their intelligence. He employs the old who would make a thing like that? attack, which is intended to do the audience displacement in their seats and question their ain unity, forbiding them to put fault on everyone else. They are basically forced to acknowledge their defec ts in this manner, but are spared the embarrassment of public humiliation: There is non a adult male beneath the canopy of Eden that does non cognize that bondage is incorrect for him ( 444 ) . The premises he makes in this manner are effectual in bring forthing the uncomfortable, challenging consequences he is seeking to bring forth. Furthermore, Douglass calls attending to the issue of equality in manhood. He presents images of life as it is for Whites populating in freedom that are besides contemplations of life for the enslaved. He illustrates that the difference is the necessity for the black slave to turn out his manhood. He asks how, with all of the activity and believing life requires, the slave s manhood can be questioned ( 443 ) . For the white adult male listening to this statement, it is required that he empathizes with the state of affairs of the slave, because in actuality there is much in common between the free and the enslaved. This is exactly Douglass s point ; bondage is the lone hinderance of slaves abilities to take a fulfilling life. Douglass s entreaties to his audience are specifically directed toward white, Christian males. He is to the full cognizant at all times he must demo that he can associate with them. As Christians, how should they hold felt had they been denied their right to pattern faith and believe in their God? What would they make if the state they so loved chained them to a life of servitude? Finally, what would all the work to back up a household and desire for self-improvement have accomplished if it merely benefited a maestro, but non a married woman and kids? Douglass intentionally addresses those facets of life that mean the most to his audience because in making so he is certain to derive the hearers full attending and consideration of the immorality of bondage.