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

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How would a former slave speak of a holiday created to celebrate freedom? In his emotionally-charged speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” Frederick Douglass answered this question but posed many more. With scorching criticism, he boldly illuminated America’s grandest flaws. Douglass utilized three key rhetorical strategies to build an evocative argument against slavery. Douglass’ furious tone set the mood. He decried America’s hypocrisy harshly, holding nothing back, and yearned to “pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule” into the nation’s ear. Douglass asked, “Must I argue that a system, thus marked with blood and stained with pollution, is wrong?” Words such as “blood” and “pollution” showed his opinion concerning the state
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Rhetorical Analysis Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist author of “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?,” 1852, portrays the slave’s perspective on this particular holiday. Douglass begins to talk about how nervous he is and how much he’s prepared for this day, then discusses how he agrees on how America was right during the revolution. He then reveals what he has actually been preparing for in his speech. The author wants to talk about slavery in order to show the audience what the Fourth of…

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