Susan B Anthony Speech Analysis

Starting in the mid-1800s a revolutionary movement began to enroot itself among the American population and other cultures around the world, Women’s Rights. In the push to raise awareness for the oppression of women and the inequality of sexes women traveled the country speaking to anyone that would listen. Two women stand apart in the effectiveness and remembrance of the speeches, as well as their leadership positions and impact they left o the nation in the development of equality. In the early years of this fight for women’s suffrage small conventions were held such as the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, where a leading reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton spoke to an eager crowd of women and men following women's rights. This movement led to

Anthony set out to prove that women had the right to vote, and that the oppression men were placing on women were unjust, as well as to justify that her voting in the 1872 election was legal, not a crime the she should be unjustly punished for. To emphasize the long list of misdeeds men have established on women she uses the repetitive use of the word oligarchy in describing the government, but with each new bringing she adds more detail to what the small group controlling the county, in this case white males, have done against the oppressed. This tactic is called amplification and starts by stating that the government is a “hateful oligarchy of sex” and that they also are an “oligarchy of learning” where there educated govern the ignorant, and lastly the oligarchy is one in which ”Saxon rule the Africans” referencing that whites rule the African Americans by limiting their rights, much like women are experiencing. She again returns to describing the oligarchy of sex but specifying how father son and brother, rule over their mothers, sisters, wife and daughter. The effects of this structure shows that men control women, and to an extent this will make them feel guilty for placing those they love in a second class citizen role. As a result of establishing this pathos, men would side with Anthony and aid her to eliminate the division that has characteristics much of history. this suffragist next argument is much more straightforward in the logical format of, if A is

She first creates a point of connection between her and the public, by writing her Declaration of Sentiments as a parody of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, which congresses had passed over seventy years prior. By using a well known document she established a sense of reliability and therefore trust between her and the audience. Her address differs from Jefferson’s in that it argues for women’s rights, developing the idea of how men are oppressing women, while the former argues for colonist rights against the oppressive British Government and King. The first three paragraphs of her speech take this format mirroring the founding fathers, but with the occasional add on or slight alteration of words, such as “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” All is word for word mimicking, except for “and women,” which creates a new meaning. Stanton’s use of employing this techniques helps her maintain the the main idea of a suppressed group of people fighting for freedom, but allows her to alter the subject of who is being pushed down, women. As a result, she showing that women declaring rights is no different than the creators of the nation wanting rights and freedom from their tyrants. This technique is continuously used throughout the speech, greeting