In the speech, given at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention, a United States social worker and reformer who successfully fought for child labor laws, Florence Kelley identifies how the working ages vary throughout States, compares different states and their child labor laws, and details the power that they have as american citizens, in order to prove that laws and restrictions need to be put in place for child labor, ultimately moving the people attending the convention to stand up to child labor and fight the government to put new laws in place. To convey her message about child labor, Florence Kelley identifies how the working ages vary throughout the States in order to show that the laws are inconsistent throughout the states. She wanted to have fair ages throughout all of the states because “they vary in age from six and seven years (in the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine and ten years (in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania).” She goes on to say that kids aging from six to sixteen are working dangerous, dirty jobs at such a young age. Identifying the ages of children working during this time is a powerful example showing how unfair and how unlawful the child labor laws are and why it needs to be fixed. …show more content…
She gave evidence and real examples of how different states have different laws for child labor age and working hours. “In Alabama the law provides that a child under sixteen years of age shall not work in a cotton mill at night longer than eight hours” … “ North and South Carolina and Georgia place no restriction upon the work of children at night,” This was one of her first comparisons throughout her speech. Florence Kelley comparing different states and their child labor laws is a great deal of evidence to show how the laws aren’t consistent throughout the states and that the laws are inconsiderate and overall wrongly put
The children may work enough to provide for their families, however they have minimal time to be a child. This proves that the government, in personified form, is a giver of the law, who creates laws that can be interpreted as a success at the expense of the children who live this reality. As a result, the government signed a law that “required women and [children] to stop work at six,” which was a significantly improved version of the inhumane work schedules (lines 41-42). The same government that placed sensible limits on the egregious system which oppressed children, made a mistake. The government “took a long backward step” when it repealed the law that brought relief to oppressed children (line 40).
July 22nd, 1905 Florence Kelly delivered a speech about the unfairness of child labor at a National American Women Suffrage Association conference. Throughout this speech Kelly uses rhetorical strategies such as repetition, sarcasm, and an appeal to the audiences emotions to express the issue of child labor in America. Kelley uses repetition in this piece to emphasize the importance of her argument about child labor. In paragraph two, talking about the rapid increase in the amount of fourteen to twenty year old women who are working, she says, “ Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase.”
Florence Kelly uses facts,syntax, and statistics to accentuate logic and logos to covey her message pertaining towards child labor to her audience.she strategically uses these three tools throughout her speech to grab the audiences attention to not only inform them, but to convince them to help reform these unjust and inhumane laws. She begins her speech with some facts about young kids who are working in places where adults should be working "commerce,in offices, in manufacturing. " By mentioning "tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills.... " she is comparing facts from our life to their life which appeals to logic. She mentions how a few states govern in relation to their laws for how long and
Compared to now, the early 1900s can be seen as an assault to the basic rights we are familiar with in the United States. From the horrid meat standards, to women’s disenfranchisement and child labor, it would take the Progressive Era to end these practices, bringing the United States closer to the one known today. In 1905, more than a decade before women were granted the right to vote, Florence Kelley spoke before the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Speaking on behalf of child and female workers, she passionately opposes the exploitation of children. Using various rhetorical strategies, Kelley crafts an argument on her insight on child labor and her true goal of women’s suffrage.
In Florence Kelley’s speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she brings to light the issue of child labour in a serious and somber tone. Using pathos and persuasive rhetoric, Kelley skillfully manipulates her fellow women to become motivated to gain the right to vote in order to take action against the evils of child labour. Kelley’s speech is filled with pathos, attempting to persuade her audience to realize the magnitude of the issue of child employment to pull the heartstrings of women. She introduces the problem as “two million children under the age of sixteen years old who are earning their bread,” showing the large number of young people currently working to earn money to make a living.
To build on her argument further, Kelley brings in specific details about how various states are treating the children. She says, “They vary in age from six and seven years(In the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine and ten (in coal-breakers of Pennsylvania), to fourteen, fifteen and sixteen in more enlightened states.” By bringing in the policies of certain states into her argument, Kelley shows that this issue is not a small matter, but yet is affecting the lives of so many children who are forced into hard labor. Her usage of the cotton mill work and coal breaking in Georgia and Pennsylvania respectively, shows that the workload children have is not light, but very severe. Kelley moves forward in her argument when talking about state policies on child labor.
Child labor is the use of children in industry or business, especially when illegal or considered inhumane. Child labor has been an ongoing problem for many years all around the world. Many people have taken a stand to fight against the devastating problem of child labor. Florence Kelley was a successful fighter, as she fought for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. To deliver a message over a strong topic such as child labor, a sense of strength, intelligence, and passion is needed, and Kelley truly had it throughout her message connecting with her audience.
The early 1900s was a time of great strikes over fierce nationalism, social activism, and protest. Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer, spoke out against child labor and the horrible conditions that children were required to bear in order to feed their families. Her speech, delivered before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905, successfully improved conditions for working children. The language Kelley uses in this speech establishes herself as a leader who has the same values and goals as her audience, but also creates a sense of culpability and sympathy from the many mothers and women in the convention in order to gain their support in her cause.
Rhetorical Devices and Strategies Impact on Child Labor Speeches are an effective way to communicate big ideas and changes to a select audience. The human to human connection that speeches provide is vital to the speaker's ability to get a point across. But speeches can also be dull, and empty. They require the use of rhetorical devices to catch the audience’s attention and create meaning. In 1905, prominent social reformer Florence Kelley delivered a speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association regarding the use of child labor in the nation.
At the beginning of the speech, Kelley explains that “two million children under the age of sixteen are earning their [family’s] bread” and serve as a source of income to support households (1-3). Kelley then goes on to disclose that many states have no minimum age requirements for workers which can cause elementary-age children to work in factories and mills at night. Kelley uses the metonymy of bread to refer to money and explains how the child is an important source of income for many families. By elaborating on the ages at which children work, Kelley demonstrates to the audience that anyone can be a victim of the horrors of child labor and attempts to cause the audience to feel empathy toward the children in their situation. Similarly, Kelley employs the oxymoron of “deafening noise” to refer to the poor conditions that children face throughout the night.
Child Labor Analysis Child Labor was one of Florence Kelley’s main topics at a speech she gave in Philadelphia during a convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Kelley talks about all the horrors children were going through and the injustices they were suffering. She talks of the conditions children working in, the hours they were going in, and all in all, how wrong child labor was. Her purpose for this was to gain support of people to petition for the end of child labor. Kelley’s appeals to Ethos, Pathos and Logos through the use of great rhetoric is what allows her to achieve her purpose.
In the mid 1800s industry was advancing and children of all ages were working in dangerous factories. People attempted to strike against these rules, while some decided not to. In the book ¨Lyddie¨ by Katherine Paterson, the main character Lyddie has a job in a factory with very poor conditions and long hours. Since this was only the 1800s, child labor laws were not yet established and Lyddie was recently introduced to her idea of rebelling against the rules for more rights.
Children from as young as the age of 6 began working in factories, the beginning of their exploitation, to meet demands of items and financial need for families. In Florence Kelley’s speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia 1905, Kelley addresses the overwhelming problem of child labor in the United States. The imagery, appeal to logic, and the diction Kelley uses in her speech emphasizes the exploitation of children in the child labor crisis in twentieth century America. Kelley’s use of imagery assists her audience in visualizing the inhumanity of the practice.
Child labor was a great concern in the Industrial revolution but very few people did something to stop it. Women and Children were forced to work more than 10 hours a day with only forty minutes to have lunch. Elizabeth Bentley once said that they didn’t have any time to have breakfast or drink anything during the day. They worked standing up and if they didn’t do their work on time they were strapped (whipped). Children were treating like they were not important, like they didn’t deserve a better life.
But not all work done by children should be accepted as child labor. In other words, if a work doesn’t harm child’s health or personal development (educational issues), it is generally accepted as something positive and useful. Such activities develop children’s skills, provide experience and formulate them to be part of society. The term “Child Labor” is when children do work that damages their health or hamper mental or physical