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Summary Of Hypocrisy Of Slavery By Frederick Douglass

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Parades, Speeches, and Chains? Frederick Douglass was an orator who fought for his people’s freedom by speaking in front of large crowds. He thought the celebrations taken place of independence and freedom were foolish and unfair for those who were slaves. He believed American slavery was not recognized enough to take action in granting those slaves their freedom. In Frederick Douglass’ speech “The Hypocrisy of American Slavery”, he used irony and juxtaposition to illustrate his opinion about slavery and freedom to educate his audience about the topic, and the injustice of slavery. Historical Background Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey Douglass was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland around 1818. He later decided to celebrate …show more content…

He attempted to escape slavery two times. While in his final attempt, he met Anna Murray, a free black woman from Baltimore which whom Douglass fell in love with. Murray helped him escape with identification papers from a free black seaman. He went straight to the safe house of abolitionist, David Ruggles in New York. Once there, Douglass and Murray married and adopted the name Johnson. They moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, which had a huge free black community. Then the changed their name to Douglass as a married couple. Douglass wrote his first autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”, in 1845. After the publication of his autobiography, Douglass moved overseas to prevent recapture and risk being sent back to slavery. He stayed in Ireland and Britain for two years and spoke to large crowds about the injustice of slavery. Douglass’ British supporters helped fund to purchase his legal freedom. In 1847, Douglass returned to the United States a free man. He was the first African American to assist the first women’s rights convection in New York. He was a speaker for both women and …show more content…

In his speech his asserts, “To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers an hymns, your sermons and Thanksgivings, with all religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.” He uses juxtaposition to compare the differences depending on the way they were raised and their skin color. To “him”, meaning the slaves captured and chained, celebrations of freedom were non-existent to

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Who Is Fredrick Augustus Washington Baily?

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His exact method of escaping was unknown to the world but he managed to leave Baltimore City and arrived in New York City without ever getting caught. While in New York, Douglass befriended a man by the name of Mr. David Ruggles. Ruggles took Fredrick to a boarding house and provided a means for Douglass to travel to New Bedford as it was not safe for Douglass to stay in New York where he could risk to chance of being found and returned back to slavery if not killed. Before Douglass left New York, he married women named Anna and they both traveled to New Bedford. Once they arrived they lived with a man by the name of Nathan Johnson who provided them with shelter, an advancement of money and helped Fredrick Douglass find employment.

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Douglass try to escape from slavery 2 times before he succeeded. He got help on his last time to try to escape with lady named Anna Marie, who was a free black woman in Baltimore who he had fallen in love with. On September 3, 1838, Douglass boarded a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Murray had provided him with some of her savings and a sailor 's uniform. He carried identification papers taken from a free black seaman.

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

462 Words | 2 Pages

Frederick Douglass was a successful abolitionist responsible for giving the famously stimulating speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Embedded within this speech were multiple rhetorical strategies such as parallelism, antithesis, and rhetorical questions; all of which contributed to the overall exemplary writing. Parallelism made his sentences more powerful; it emphasized his argument by using the same structure. When Douglass harmonized his verbal arrangements, it added venom in his words and drama to the speech. He wanted passion so that the audience took him seriously and paid attention to his words.

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In 1776, on July 4th, the 13 English colonies officially declared their freedom from England. However, as the years progressed, slavery became incorporated into everyday American life. In 1852, former slave Frederick Douglass gave a speech to celebrate America’s independence; however, instead of praising the country, he censured Americans for saying they were a “country of the free”. In the speech, Hypocrisy of American Slavery, Frederick Douglass declares that Americans should not be celebrating their freedom when there are slaves living in the country. To convince his audience that Americans are wrong celebrating freedom on the 4th of July when slavery exists in their country, he uses emotional appeal, ethical appeal, and rhetorical questions.

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He questions his audience of the significance of Independence Day to slaves, and he answers it in an extremely contrasting way: “your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; … your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery,” that the celebration is “a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.” Douglass dismisses the national pride, characterizing it as a mere expression of people’s ignorance. The antithesis, with “greatness” being “vanity,” “sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless,” and “shouts of liberty and equality” being “hollow mockery,” provokes shock and anger from the audience, who have just been part of it and are now degraded as “savages.” However, Douglass was not trying to be inflammatory but provocative, witnessing the pathetic enthusiasm in the anniversary, that people feel exuberant about themselves while ignoring the saddening

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Throughout Douglass's speech, he exceeds expectations by adding excellent examples of ethos, pathos, and unique tone. These examples help the audience see his viewpoints and helps him connect with them. The literary devices used in his speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, aided in his fight against

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Most of his time was in the movement of the abolition of slavery. He did not want any other black person to face brutality, humiliation, and pain. His arguments became very useful in the anti-slavery movement. It is through his experiences of being a slave that he urged for the abolition of slavery (Douglass, 1845). Douglass’ style of narration makes the reader to be involved in the story emotionally.

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1657 Words | 7 Pages

“The Hypocrisy of American Slavery: Slavery at its best” Frederick Douglass an activist for anti racism and also an abolitionist’s speech “The Hypocrisy of Slavery” was given on the occasion of celebrating the independence day. Here, in this speech he actually brought out some questions like why we should celebrate Independence Day while almost four million people were kept chained as a slave. He actually mocked the fact of the people of America’s double standards which is that they are singing out the song of liberty, on the other hand holding the chain of slavery. Frederick Douglass, a former American-African slave who managed to escape from his slavery and later on became an abolitionist gave this speech on Fourth of July,

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What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Throughout his sermon, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, Fredrick Douglass devotedly argued that to the slave and even the liberated African American, the Fourth of July was nothing more than a holiday of a mockery of the crudest kind. Through his use of several rhetorical devices and strategies, Douglass conveyed his perspective on the concerning matter as if he were the voice of the still enslaved, both physically and logically. Prevalently, he presented an effectively argued point using ethos, logos, and pathos through credible appeals, convincing facts and statistics, and by successfully employing emotional appeals.

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Frederick Douglass Hypocrisy Essay

1049 Words | 5 Pages

Group Essay on Frederick Douglass “That this little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system”, and that Frederick Douglass does in his eponymous autobiography. Douglass throws light by dispelling the myths of the slave system, which received support from all parts of society. To dispel these myths Douglass begins to construct an argument composed around a series of rhetorical appeals and devices. Douglass illustrates that slavery is dehumanizing, corrupting, and promotes Christian hypocrisy. Using telling details, Douglass describes the dehumanizing effects of the slave system which condones the treatment of human beings as property.

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1025 Words | 5 Pages

He declares, “to forget them [the slaves], to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world,” (para. 5). He discusses that slavery is unjust, and says that celebrating freedom with slavery would be treason. This helps the audience realize that celebrating freedom in their country is not a peccadillo, and they naturally will try to right the wrong because of their moral instincts by stopping their celebration. He also says, “to him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages,” (para. 15). In this quote, Douglass says that celebrating liberty is covering up a crime: slavery.

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1574 Words | 7 Pages

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Frederick Douglass was a great writer, but he wasn’t always. He was an escaped slave who used that in his speeches as a topic to gain the attention of his audience. His audience was a seemingly sympathetic one and got to them through rhetorical questions. Douglass wanted to convey the message that there are many changes that need to be made.

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