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Rhetorical Analysis Of What To The Slave Is The 4th Of July

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Former slave, Frederick Douglass, in his speech, “What to the Slave is the 4th of July” demonizes slavery. Douglass’s purpose is to convince the audience that slavery is bad. Since Douglass was a former slave, his listeners would put the idea to mind more. He adopts a humble tone, at first, in order to establish confidence in his listeners. Douglass develops ethos in his speech by introducing to his listeners that he was a former slave, and that he is just a normal person. By doing this, Douglass demonstrates what anyone can do. To develop this ethos, he introduces himself “as a speaker” who has never been in any assembly “more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of his ability, than he does this day.” Douglass introduces himself as
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