Compare And Contrast Frederick Douglass And Patrick Henry

“...GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH!” (Henry 92). Freedom is a right that every living human being deserves and needs; however, in the early years of America, this right was withheld from a copious amount of people because of the prejudice, judgemental, and immoral atmosphere of an America that ironically fought for its own freedom from Great Britain. Although some people were outspoken enough to bravely insist upon change, the change requested always transpired slower than molasses. Nevertheless, the persuasion and rhetoric in powerful speeches such as those from passionate speakers: Frederick Douglass, Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henry, compelled their stubborn country to truly think deeper and take action concerning the elephant in the room.

Thomas Paine’s “The Crisis”, written during the revolution, possessed the goal of promoting inspiration to the soldiers, hoping to push them to make lemonade with the lemons they already possessed. While implementing some religious statements to cater to everyone’s beliefs, Paine emotionally invested into persuading the soldiers to also believe that they could win although the finish line seemed so far away. Paine promoted perseverance to the colonists and the soldiers, and in a similar way, Douglass promoted the freedom for slaves. In the speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, written in the mid-nineteenth century, the speaker Frederick Douglass desperately advocated for and tried to persuade the predominately white audience that the slaves of America deserved to be completely free. Douglass wanted the balance beam of America to be equally levelled with the same rights and treatment; he was sick and tired of slaves continuously being treated like property rather than the humans they obviously

Gradually there is a growing intensity as he uniquely uses rhetoric. To give an example, Douglass asks, “May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny?…” (Douglass). He uses a rhetorical question concerning a reformer and his hope for America’s future to make the audience think. Not only does he use a rhetorical question, but he uses parallel structure within it. In this two-for-one combo, Douglass makes use of the wording “of wisdom, of justice, and of truth”; the parallel structure opened the audience’s ears because of the flow (Douglass). Later in the speech Douglass implements another gripping rhetorical question. “...why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” (Douglass). In the questions he lengthens his overall question, his title. So, what is “Independence Day” to a slave? Hypocrisy! He hits the bullseye with these back-to-back questions making his targeted audience truly realize that the celebration they have has absolutely NOTHING to do with him and other African Americans; it is a mockery. Another major