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Rhetorical Analysis Of What To The American Slave Is Your Fourth Of July

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Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who joined the Abolitionist cause in the North, writing books and speeches with a first-hand account of the horrors of slavery. In 1852, as the anti-slavery movement in the North was approaching a new peak and as secessionist sentiments were emerging in the South, he was invited to give a speech at a Fourth of July celebration in Rochester (Douglass). Douglass used the opportunity to expose the hypocrisy of this democracy through his speech, “July 4, 1852.” In the speech, he pointed the flawed logic behind celebrating freedom while keeping millions of people as property, denying them rights. He made it clear that any arguments supporting slavery were unsound. He took down many such arguments by anticipating …show more content…

He asserts this by asking listeners, ‘What to the American slave is your Fourth of July?’ (Douglass). Douglass proceeds to answer the question, calling the Fourth of July ‘a day that reveals to [the slave] more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim’ (Douglass). This is an example of a rhetorical device known as hypophora, where a question is asked and answered by the same person. Douglass uses this to add credibility to his speech and to his anti-slavery arguments, showing that he has first-hand knowledge about slavery. Only a person who has been through the crushing oppression of slavery can justly answer such a question. Douglass can see the world through the eyes of a slave and can think like a slave. Thus, he is qualified to speak on the behalf of slaves and state that slavery is harmful to them and is wrong. Douglass uses hypophora to show his audience that he is a voice for the millions of voiceless people held as property in the American South, even after gaining his freedom, and that he will continue to fight against slavery. Douglass asks his audience questions for which he does not expect an answer to begin his speech, many of which do not solely apply to him but to all slaves. He starts out his speech with the

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