Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass’s speech highlights the inconsistencies in America’s ideas of freedom and equality by creating a contrast between America’s celebration of liberty and the brutal realities of slavery. Addressing a crowd in Rochester, New York, Frederick highlights the extreme hypocrisy in a nation holding pride in freedom while holding millions of its citizens in bondage, “The great paradox of celebrating liberty within the context of slavery in the United States”- (Bernard K. Duffy, Richard D. Besel Pg 5). Frederick began his speech by acknowledging how important & significant the 4th of July was for the white Americans; paying homage to the Founding Fathers, describing them as “brave men”, and acknowledging their “good work”, all done to
Suparman suggests, “Enslavement was fundamentally evil on the side of morality. It is a curse to the master and a wrong to the slave, African slaves were trapped in the American enslavement system, which was very different from slavery in other societies.”(Suparman 153). These slaves were often away from other family members as it provided slaveowners improvement in their financial situation; Enslaved people could not defend themselves from the violence of the slaveowners and in a legal situation could not testify to these acts of violence unless it was against a fellow slave or free black person. Slaves were punished for several reasons, including if found not to be working fast enough, being late to jobs for whatever reason, disobedience, or even worse, being seen trying to escape; these punishments were performed in different forms, from whipping to imprisonment, sometimes these punishments were so extreme it led to death, Suparman adds to this idea stating, “The slaveholders thought that it was very easy to kill the