Florence Kelley Speech Analysis

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Florence Kelley is a reformer who fights for child labor laws and better working conditions for women. At the National Assembly Women Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905, Kelley recites a speech talking about the issues of child labor laws. She uses rhetorical strategies such as repetition of the many negative aspects of child labor through specific examples, criticism of states regarding their policies, and emotional appeal. By using a combination of figures, logic, evidence, and emotional appeal, Kelley hopes to get her point across by convincing her audience of the problems with child labor. Kelley utilizes factual information to assert her authority of having knowledge on the subject. She opens the speech with, “We have, …show more content…
By getting the audience involved, she is making them realize that there needs to be change. Kelly ask the questions, “If the mothers and the teachers in Georgia could vote, would the Georgia Legislature have refused at every session for the last three years to stop the work in the mills of children under twelve years of age?” and “Would the New Jersey Legislature have passed that shameful repeal bill enabling girls of fourteen years to work all night, if the mothers in New Jersey were enfranchised?” These questions are meant to make the audience understand that past actions have lead up to the current problems. The first question addresses the idea of voting rights for woman. Since women could not vote, they have no say in the decisions made by the states. However, Kelly has already talked about the problems with child labor laws. The audience knows Kelly’s stand on the issue and now knows the reason why it exists. She makes the audience rethink their past decisions with logic and the evidence presented by the current situation. She hopes to instill them with the need to make a change. Since the audience feels that change must happens, Kelly introduces a solution. Once again, she brings logic into her argument about women’s voting rights and child labor laws. Kelly asks, “What can we do to free our consciences?” When Kelly is talking about “consciences”, she is
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