Rhetorical Analysis Of In The Shadow Of Liberty By Kenneth Davis

Rhetorical Situation The rhetorical situation hides in the shadows of literacy in all respects. To average readers, it does not come into the light. An accomplished and active reader sees through the haze to reveal the beautiful blend of literacy. Context, author, audience, and subject comprise In the Shadow of Liberty by Kenneth C. Davis to make the piece effective. As an author begins to write, the context behind the act matters in the final version of the work. Kenneth C. Davis published this novel while a plethora of social tension occurred, albeit he writes of one specific type of social tension. He makes mention of it briefly in the beginning and again at the end of his novel. While speaking of the unalienable rights in the Constitution,

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. For logic, he pulls quotes from the enslaved people and dates when he could find them. One includes the day where “…nearing the age of sixty, Isaac was given his freedom on February 21, 1834. He was officially registered as a ‘Free man of Color’” (166). Along with the facts, Davis appeals to emotion by sharing intimate details from the families and their slaves. It appears when showing the closeness of the slave-owner connection of Alfred and Andrew Jackson; “Then Alfred Jackson was buried in the garden beside the tomb of Andrew Jackson and his wife, Rachel” (252). A slave being buried by a former president shows the soft spot that Andrew had for his one slave. All of the appeals to rhetoric build the subject of slavery into five well developed

In the Shadow of Liberty uses several forms to pull readers into a literary embrace. In specific, Kenneth C. Davis uses definition, assertion/justification, and comparison-contrast to enhance his writing. Davis begins his writing with a definition to set up for the rest of what he writes. He says “…that people were enslaved means this condition was forced on them; it does not define who they were” (xvi). To define ‘enslaved’ in the beginning of his piece, he gives the people he writes about a higher respect than they had at the time they lived. He shows how they were people and had human qualities, not just animals who could be bought, sold, and traded. His purpose for writing the five stories he does focuses on the idea of voicing the enslaved people’s lives. The use of assertion/justification in writing helps an author seem confident. Davis states “Here is America's great contradiction. Jefferson wrote about the ideals and principles of equality and even proposed some small steps toward ending American slavery. But he also owned people and was completely dependent on them for his livelihood and personal comfort until the day he died” (143). He establishes his view and then backs it up with the irony of Jefferson writing of equality, yet owning slaves until he died, which he uses as his justification. By using the assertion/justification, he aids