“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” a speech given by Frederick Douglass, is full of rhetorical devices and strategies used to interest the audience and to reinforce the points that Douglass wants to make. Many great speakers were common people: slaves, moms, dads, teachers, and strangers. In contrast, most famous speeches that are made today are given by celebrities and those with large followings. Douglass, however, had to prove himself each time he made a speech; he did not have a large fanbase that was ready to sit through each speech he gave. Because only the best would help him succeed, Douglass was unable to give a second rate speech that would interest few in the audience. Therefore, Douglass incorporates strong uses of pathos, tone, and imagery in order to peak the interest in the speech that he was giving. …show more content…
It is one thing to study and topic and regurgitate it back out in your own words, but when you have experience with what you are sharing, your speech has a connection to you that is greater than any book you read could bring you. Douglass definitely knows where he has been and what he has done: lively in the south, being a slave, being brutally beaten; and he knows that he must use these in his speech to seem believable. Douglass proclaims that through blind prejudice, Douglass is inferior and a brute. What makes this so? The impeccable speaker argues, with words such as tyrants, vanity, heartless and vain, that the American people are oblivious. What better way to do this than with such deeply felts words of emotion, true feeling, and ultimately