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
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).
On July 22nd, 1905, Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women, delivered a speech on child labor before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia. The purpose of her speech was to convince her audience that the only way to stop child labor was by allowing women the right to vote. Florence Kelley uses certain rhetorical strategies, such as pathos, diction, and an extensive use of figurative language, to appeal to her audience and accomplish her goal. Kelley’s speech is composed of a substantial amount of emotional appeals to aid her in connecting with her intended audience. In paragraph four she says, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.”
About one hundred thousand workers from six hundred different mills were on strike there. The strikers wanted their work cut from sixty to fifty-five hours. About a sixth of the strikers were children under sixteen.” ( 5, Josephson). As a result, she gathered a large group of mill children and their parents, shaming the mill owners of their actions.
Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer, delivered a speech before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association on July 22, 1905. The speech was meant to call the listeners’ attention to child labour, the laws that governed it, and how it needed to be changed. In order to achieve this, Kelley uses various rhetorical devices; some of which include the use of rhetorical questions to draw the listener’s attention to what is happening, the use of imagery to evoke emotions, and the use of specific facts in order to build credibility. Kelly conveys her message about child labor reviews of rhetorical questions to draw the listener’s attention to what is happening. When she questions that
She begins by talking about the amount of children and the drastic rate of increase of the wage class. Kelley then uses the quote “Tonight while
Child Labor Laws Florence Kelley, who is a social reformer, read a speech that addresses “child labor laws and [improving] conditions for working women.” This was specifically made so that these problems would be solved in the near future with a grand audience, which was located in a “convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905”, as its’ witness. Indubitably, she starts off with using techniques that attract people of high morality. Using age and how some states have worse laws than the latter.
Florence Kelley is a reformer and social worker who was an advocate for working women and young children. She had a mission to change child labor laws in all states and improve the condition for working-class women. In her speech, she discusses the reality of child labor and the laws that certain states have in place for child labor. In the first two paragraphs, Kelley establishes her credibility by using key facts and statistics such as “We have, in this country, two million children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread” and “No other portion of the wage earning class increased so rapidly from decade to decade as young girls from fourteen to twenty girls.” She also mentions the facts about laws in other states such as
Through this rhetorical strategy Kelley is trying to encourage readers and her audience to support regulations for child labor. If they fight together then more regulations will be enforced, eventually ending child labor. The effect of this strategy was placing the idea that many children would be working just to survive while these people are sleeping carefree. To achieve their survival they had to work late, riks their lives daily, and work in perilous
After using such strong diction, repetition, and metaphors to create an emotional bond with her audience and a pull to take action, Florence Kelley hits them with a solution that none of them would want to ignore. Her timing and strategic use of words is what allows her to pull this off, seamlessly shifting the spotlight from child labor reform to women's
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.
Child labor was a huge topic of discussion in the 1900s. Some opposed it while others felt it was completely just to keep the economy running. Florence Kelley, in 1905, delivered her speech, which explained that child labor is completely unjustified and wrong. In her speech, Kelley uses rhetorical strategies such as varied syntax, statistics and facts, as well as detail to provoke sympathy from her audience. She uses these strategies effectively to convey her message.
Kelley uses an example of a little girl affected by the lack of child laws as she describes, “13 years of age” who spent her birthday working “twelve hours at night” (7). The evidence would allow the reader to realize that the effects of no regulations in the child labor system is apparent and needs to be addressed. Kelley is able to persuade women and men at the National American Woman Suffrage convention to take the initiative to take a stand against unreasonable working conditions for adolescent children who don’t have a voice for themselves. With the use of a short emotional anecdote, Kelley is able to strengthen her claim regarding advocating for women’s right to vote in order to achieve stronger child labor laws to ensure little girls on their 13th birthday wouldn’t have to spend 12 hours working. As a result, the anecdote compels the audience at the convention to improve conditions for child labor, as the children have little to no protection in the legislation.
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.
In her speech, written to persuade her audience to help put an end to child labor, Florence Kelley employs many rhetorical devices. America in 1905, we learned, was riddled with inadequate labor laws, as well as working conditions. In order to convey her message, that these unethical statues need to be amended, Kelley uses rhetorical strategies such as pathos, parallelism, and illustration. Pathos is found throughout the entire speech, particularly emphasizing the horrific jobs the children were performing under terrible conditions and for countless hours. The descriptions of these appeal to the readers emotions, as the facts that she shares depict scenes we consider unusual even for adults.
