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Florence Kelley's Speech Against Child Labor

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Florence Kelley was a social worker and reformer who fought against child labor. In order to recruit people to her cause, Florence delivered a speech to the National American Suffrage Association Convention regarding child labor. In this speech, Florence depicted the atrocities and injustices of child labor to paint a picture of the current situation to the women. Kelley attempts to recruit the women in the convention by engaging them with different emotions like despair, frustration, inspiration, and hope, as well as give several examples of the impact of child labor. Florence begins her speech by illustrating the atrocities of child labor such as poor working conditions, age, and amount of kids working, to show women how unjust child labor
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274 Words | 2 Pages

It is easy to disregard the lives of others, especially of those outside one’s own, but does the fact that, tonight, several thousand children will restlessly work while the adults sleep not raise concern? Florence Kelly was a United States social worker who advocated for child labor laws and the improved working conditions for women throughout the early 1900s. During a speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association Kelly skillfully employed the rhetorical strategies of imagery, pathos, and anecdote in order to sufficiently inform her listeners of the horrendous working conditions that many children were forced to endure. Through careful word choice Kelly’s use of imagery manages to evoke a sense of pity among her listeners towards

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Florence Kelley a United States social worker and reformer delivered a speech about child labor in 1905. In Kelley’s speech, she uses sophisticated word choice, ethics, and imagery to reveal her message about child labor particularly in six states. In Florence Kelley speech she uses specific word choices to explain the wages of men, women and youth. “Boys increase in the ranks of the breadwinners; but no contingent so doubles from census period to census period.”

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74 Words | 1 Pages

In her speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Florence Kelly descriptively vocalizes about chid labor. She talks about the horrible conditions young children face in the states. Kelly uses repetition to put emphasis on little girls working in textile mills, “while we sleep” is repeated 3 times this makes the audience feel guilty for enjoying life while little girls are working. Kelly also uses pathos, appealing to the emotion of her

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412 Words | 2 Pages

This collects extra support for her main cause, child labor laws. Children are meant to run, play, and be free, not work excessive hours in a heinous factory. By using logos, pathos, and a shift in topic, Florence Kelley effectively erects her argument to vote for, and create, child labor laws

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626 Words | 3 Pages

On July 22, 1905, Florence Kelley, a supporter of child labor laws and improved conditions for working women, delivered a powerful speech before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia. Through uses of rhetoric strategies, such as, evidence, diction, and imagery, Kelley illustrates her argument that working conditions and laws must be changed. Kelley begins her speech by presenting a list of statistics. As many as “two million children under the age of sixteen years” earn their bread (lines 1-2). No other group of workers increased as rapidly as young girls from fourteen to twenty (lines 8-10).

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365 Words | 2 Pages

Florence Kelley, a 1900s reformer and advocate who worked to promote children’s rights and put an end to child labor in the United States, demonstrates appeals to logos and appeals to pathos in order to develop a passionate, powerful tone and hold the audience accountable/gain sympathy. Her organization of ideas, combined with diction that appeals to the emotions, create an influential speech that both flows logically and tugs on the heartstrings of the crowd. Initially, Kelley immediately draws her audience in, establishing the purpose of her speech and where she stands regarding the topic of child labor. She is well-organized and maintains a steady delivery of facts and statistics that help to further explain her point of view.

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381 Words | 2 Pages

In her speech addressing the National American Woman Suffrage Association on the topic of child labor, Florence Kelley bases her argument, through the use of logos, cacophony, and rhetorical questions on the ethical merit against child labor. Establishing her main arguments, and introducing the topic at hand, Kelley provides statistical evidence by which she conveys the pandemic of child labor. By stating that, “We have, in this country, two million children who are earning their bread,” she establishes the idea that child labor is widespread throughout the union and further notes the idea by describing the alarming trend of low wage-earning children growing as a demographic. She also notes it is especially common for girls between the ages

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1020 Words | 5 Pages

As a young girl, she was innocent and unaware of all the discrimination in the south. Growing up, Anne has dealt with severe poverty and is often the one bringing income to her family’s home along with her mother. Her employers are a huge factor as to why she is so drawn to the movement. For instance, when Anne learned about Emmitt Till being killed, she ran to her mother for an explanation but her mother had replied “…just do your work like you don’t know nothing… that boy’s a lot better off in heaven than he is here” (262). Her mother brushing off the death of Emmitt Till took the best of her curiosities and she questioned why her mother was acting so afraid although it was obvious that.

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901 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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384 Words | 2 Pages

Florence Kelley was an activist who fought against child labor in the late 1800'-early 1900's. She fought very hard for child labor and for better working conditions for our women. On the day of July 22, 1905 Kelley gave her speech regarding her reasoning of why child labor should end. To get a better understanding of her speech Florence Kelley implies pathos, ethos, and logos,which will catch the audience attention. The author reflects the sense of ethos playing the role of Florence Kelley.

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493 Words | 2 Pages

In Florence Kelley’s passionate 1905 speech against child labor at the convention for the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, she employs multiple persuasive rhetorical strategies to guilt her audience and provoke action. Kelley, through illustrating the experiences of young children with auditory and visual imagery, juxtaposes her audience with the plight the children face, calling them to not perpetuate the problem and act. Kelley further utilizes statistical figures to connect with her female audience and call for change. She further connects her audience to the injustice, shaming their comfort in comparison to the danger and pain the children face. Florence Kelley illustrates the terrible conditions and grueling work children of the time dealt with through visual and

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604 Words | 3 Pages

In a speech spoken toward the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Florence Kelley addresses the rough times young children go through while working. Her speech is said to empower people to take a stand and stop child labor as evidenced by her use of appealing to the audience's emotions and stating specifically what she and the women can do to help, as well as her usage of questioning the decisions being made. Florence Kelley voices her opinion of what people should do to stop child labor by tugging at the heart strings of her audience. She wants the NAWSA to understand what the children do on a day to day basis for small amounts of money. In line 18 Kelley clarifies that "While we sleep, several thousand little girls will be

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1020 Words | 5 Pages

The audience is angry and Florence uses the anger to her advantage as she says " If the mothers and the teachers in Georgia could vote, would the Georgia Legislature have refused at every session for the last three years to stop the work in the mills of children under twelve years of age" (Kelley paragraph 8). Once again she uses logic to highlight that Child Labor could have been restricted, but in this text she is moreso empowering the women. Even though she says this before evoking anger, the anger is already there and therefore the audience thinks back to her claim here. Florence Kelley is specific about the structure of her speech and knows when she has established

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569 Words | 3 Pages

In America’s history, child labor was fiercely criticized. Many activists of child labor laws and women’s suffrage strived to introduce their own viewpoints to the country. Florence Kelley was a reformer who successfully changed the mindset of many Americans through her powerful and persuading arguments. Florence Kelley’s carefully crafted rhetoric strategies such as pathos, repetition, and sarcasm generates an effective and thought provoking tone that was in favor of women’s suffrage and child labor laws. Florence Kelley uses pathos continuously throughout her speech.

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524 Words | 3 Pages

In conclusion, Florence Kelley used many rhetorical strategies in order to call her audience to arms against child labor laws. She accuses the laws of being unjust and labels the children prisoners. In the last two paragraphs, Kelley refers to her cause as the "freeing of the children." She believed the children were robbed of their basic rights and freedoms by labor laws and used strategies such as pathos, parallelism, and illustration to convince her audience to help her "free

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