In the introduction of the essay, Davis states “This book is about how the threads of slavery were woven deeply into almost every aspect of American society for centuries. It is about how important slavery was to the nation’s birth and growth and to the men who led the country for so long. It is about wealth and political power and untold misery” (xii). He supports his topic with the five stories of the black people enslaved by American heroes that he researched well. Within the stories, he appeals to logic and emotion.
In his speech to his fellow African Americans, Alfred M. Green implores the group to join the ranks of the Union Army during the Civil War, despite their ability to do so. Hopeful, Green attempts to persuade a group of unmotivated men to fight with their oppressors. In order to convince his fellow men, Green appeals to the pain they received, to their pride, and to their sense of community. To show that he empathizes with the pain his comrades felt, he appeals to their pain by reminding them of the hardships that they all had to face. For example, he explains that he knows that the citizens of the United States “have failed to bring [the African Americans] into recognition as citizens.”
Quote: “The more I remembered the killings, the beatings, and intimidations, the more I worried what might possibly happen to me or my family if I joined the NAACP. But I knew I was going to join, anyway” (Ch. 20, pg. 269). This passage is significant because it demonstrates the substantial and terrifying risks taken by those who chose to join the early Civil Rights Movement in the south. Earlier in her life, Anne witnessed acts of bigotry, violence, and murder carried out against members of black activists organizations and anyone who mentioned these groups in public.
Frederick Douglass offers two powerful works of abolitionist writing in in letter to Thomas Auld and his address “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”. His letter to Thomas Auld, his former slave master, was the personal made public, as he recounted his struggle and his family’s struggle to ostensibly to Auld but perhaps more importantly to the public at large. He used a similar strategy as Solomon Northup did in 12 Years a Slave, placing particular emphasis on the injustices of slavery within the context of familial relationships. Douglass wrote of his love for his children, saying “Oh! sir, a slaveholder never appears to me so completely an agent of hell, as when I think of and look upon my dear children”(4).
Instead, he implores them to be more political. His goal in writing is to make people aware of the social injustices occurring. The Negro writer who seeks to function within his race as a purposeful aren has a serious responsibility. In order to do justice to his subject matter, in order to depict Negro life in all of its manifold and intricate relationships, a deep, informed, and complex consciousness is necessary; a consciousness which draws for its strength upon the fluid lore of a great people, and more this lore with concepts that move and direct the forces of history today (Wright,
W.E.B DuBois, a well known civil liberties advocate, in his speech, Niagara Movement, illuminates the need for racial equality in America. In his speech, his purpose is to call white Americans to action, as well as highlight the effects of the African American’s white superiors excluding them from simple, constitutionally given, liberties. He adopts an authoritative tone in order to establish a feeling of guilt for white people who determine the rights given to African-Americans. DuBois convinces his audience that African-Americans should become equal on a social, economical, and political level, through the use of emotional diction, reasonable ideas and a dominant tone.
Although a century apart, Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and Frederick Douglass’s What to a Slave is the fourth of July are kindred spirits. Notwithstanding the many differences in their respective writing styles, deep down the essence of the message conveyed is still very much the same. Both Martin Luther King Junior and Frederick Douglas had similar beliefs and concepts related to the treatment of the African American community. They both describe a tough yet heart breaking situation that makes them question their moral values and doubt the system and its ability to change for better.
Frederick Douglass, born a slave and later the most influential African American leader of the 1800s, addresses the hypocrisy of the US of maintaining slavery with its upheld ideals being freedom and independence on July 4th, 1852. Douglass builds his argument by using surprising contrasts, plain facts, and provocative antithesis. Introducing his subject, Douglass reminds his audience about the dark side of America for slaves, in sharp, surprising contrasts with the apparent progressivity within the nation. He first notices “the disparity,” that “the sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and deaths to me,” as an African-American former slave. It is surprising for the audience to hear that the Sun does not bring him any prosperity, that the Sun, the source of life on earth, brings him destruction.
Furthermore, Douglass skillfully adds historical references throughout his argument, particularly by using the principles of the Constitution. He highlights the contradiction between the nation's ideas of freedom and equality when the government then denies these principles to a significant portion of the population. By showing the audience the nation’s founding values and the fight against slavery, Douglass challenges the audience to live up to and prove the idea of the country’s
One of the strategies Douglass uses to convince his audience slavery should be abolished is by “calling out American hypocrisy in his Fourth of July oration” (Mercieca 1). He shames them with no remorse. He speaks on the opposite treatments that enable whites to live in a state of freedom and liberty, while the blacks are living in a state of bondage. As the audience listens, he reminds them, there are men, women and children still held hostages to the chains of
he uses bold words and biting criticism to call attention to the gross injustices and hypocrisy of slavery in the United States. In the opening remarks of his speech, Douglas provides heart-wrenching descriptions to pull his audience into the lives of their fellow
In the poem titled, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley, the poet challenges the concept of individual rights by illustrating how slavery can affect someone’s freedom. For instance, “Some view our stable race with scornful eye, Their colour is a diabolic die” (lines 5-6). In the text, Wheatley describes how society often sees African American , and how they are seen with “diabolic die,” which implies that African Americans are seen as terrible people. In addition, African Americans are categorized as different by “stable race,” which means a race who can not be superior than other.
On April 4, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy gave his remarks on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Robert’s goal was to inform people on Martin Luther King’s journey and to strengthen people’s attitudes on the whole situation. Robert’s main points throughout the speech were how the country as a whole should move forward, why the states should not resort to violence but unity instead, and he also addressed that the country needed unity, love, and compassion.
Often times we see the same issues in history repeat, but manifested in different ways. Literature is able to capture the emotions and thought process of a given time, letting you inside the minds of the people dealing with such dilemmas. In the course we read various pieces of literature: Sonny’s Blues, Rectatiff, Cathedral, The Lady With the Dog, Fences and Short eyes, each having individual themes and styles, but all ultimately including the central motif of the struggles effecting the African American community. Not only is this a reoccurring topic in the literature that we read, but it a controversial and present topic in today’s media. Electing our first African-American president, electoral candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson, and
These include articulating the plight of enslaved persons, challenging the larger white community to change its attitude toward those persons, and providing specific reference points for the nature of the complaints presented. In other words, the intention of protest literature was—and remains—to show inequalities among races and socio-economic groups in America and to
