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Fourth Of July

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Fourth Of July
The speech by Frederick Douglass tittle “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”? Mr. Douglass addresses that from a slave point of view, and even to the freed African American, the 4th of July is a joke. Douglas uses a number rhetorical strategies to pass on his sentiments about the problem.
As he continues with he’s speech, he changes gears on the way he addresses the audience. Mr. Douglass to his advantage uses the articulations "you" and "me", "us" and "them", to extend how this event is a two-sided, and for his family and other African Americans it is a day of sadness, while for the rest of them, it is a day of joy. Something to point out: his spectators in this talk in July of 1852 was made out mostly of white abolitionists. Meaning, …show more content…
Douglass continues forward to discuss the wrongs done by America. He says that any man who is not racist or prejudice should see that his words are of truth. He discusses the Constitution, he examines the Bible, and he talks about God. With such credited references backing him up, it would for all intents and purposes make any man feel like Lucifer to attempt and contradict his ideas. For the last half of his talk, he clarifies why African Americans have the same right to freedom that any other American does. One by one, he talks about the slave being a man, and if they are that they have a right to liberty, that it is not correct to make men "creatures", in conclusion, that freedom is not divine or exclusive. Freedom is a born right of all men. If a man is a man, then he meets all the requirements to be free, and if this cannot be seen, fighting about it is useless. After this point is made, he advances a compelling articulation to move down this idea. "For it is not light that is needed but fire"(Douglass, 1852). The light symbolizes the freedom of all men, yet the fire is what is missing. His words seem to flow with a warmed force that could not be stopped. One could simply imagine truly hearing the talk when it was given by Mr. Douglass himself. His point is not made, yet compelled, upon the gathering of
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