Elizabeth Cady Argumentative Analysis

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From the reading in the text, the all encompassing theme is the author's goal of change in society. The work of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Seneca Falls convention, Fredrick Douglas, and Kate Chopin fought to put society's focus on the individual during the transcendentalist movement. It is important to be an individual in society and the author focused on fighting for that right to be an individual.
During the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 attendees of this historic occasion wrote and signed the Declaration of Sentiments. The main author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, wrote to persuade the nation towards the changes that needed to be made in America in relation to women's rights. At the time women did not have the freedom to be an individual
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Because they could not speak up on their own behalf they looked to abolitionists to fight for their rights. One of the most famous abolitionists of all time is Frederick Douglas who delivered a powerful speech on July 4th, 1852 advocating for slaves right to be an individual and pointing out hypocrisies within our society as it relates to slaves rights. Douglas spoke of such hypocrisy when he said, “The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by you fathers, is shared by you, not by me”(Douglas, 39). The founding fathers promise such values to all citizens, but they do not extend them to all of its peoples. Without these rights it is impossible to feel like you are an individual with a place in our society and government as opposed to property. Douglas expresses his empathy for those who are undervalued in a society when he states “Fellow-citizens, above your tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of million” (Douglas, 39). Douglas is trying to express how the Fourth of July is a day of suffering for so many people. He uses this as a way to humanize the once dehumanized slaves and explain why they deserve to be individuals in American