A Day To Celebrate Emancipation Rhetorical Analysis

The movie “Freedom Writers” is based on a true story. Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell plays an inspirational teacher at Wilson High School. She is ready to take on the teaching world as she steps inside Wilson High School for her first day. Her class, varied with teenagers of different ethnic backgrounds, wants nothing more than to just get through the day. African Americans, Latinos, Asians, gang members, and much more are from poor neighborhoods, that all share a similar hatred for each other. On the first day of teaching she is very scared and unsure, but she knows she has to stop the racism in the class as well as their attitude towards life. Despite her students' persistent refusal to participate

Douglas's What to a slave is the 4th of July shows how the American interpretation of slavery is hypocritical. Douglas is able to express these successful expresses this fact by using all rhetorical choices, ethos, pathos and logos. Using all three to further strengthen his view on how slaves have little thought for the 4th of July. Giving us, a perspective of what life was really like for the typical slave in America at the time.

This is a speech from the movie Independence Day (1996). A foreign spacecraft has fallen from the sky and alien species have already diminished cities from around the world. Survivors of the alien attacks head to Area 51, where it is rumored that the government holds alien spacecraft. They devise a plan against the alien species and July 4th is their attack day. The president stands up, and over an intercom gives a motivational speech to the fighter pilots from around the world. His purpose for the speech is to unite the fighters from around the world before they go attack the aliens.

Douglass began his speech to the audience by asking a series of rhetorical questions in addition to the use of sarcasm. He referred to the Declaration of Independence as “that” instead of “the” Declaration stressing a separation between African-Americans and the freemen of the United States. He extended the use of his rhetoric by asking, “What have I or those, I represent, to do with your national independence?” Slaves, whose freedom is denied, do not share other Americans’ patriotic feelings regarding the Fourth of July. His use of these rhetorical questions was valid because it separated Douglass as a different man than the rest of his white audience. Furthermore, Douglass asked, "Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty?" He indicated that people knew in their hearts that all were entitled to freedom. Douglass demonstrated sarcasm in this principle of freedom, almost as if the aforementioned rhetorical question shouldn’t need to be stated. He further declared that the stigma separating free whites and enslaved African-Americans was blatantly foolish.

Today I have chosen two speeches which are critical to the growth and development that our nation has gone through. Two men from different backgrounds and different times with one common goal, equality for all. The Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” both address the oppression of the African-Americans in their cultures. Though one hundred years and three wars divide the two documents, they draw astonishing parallels in they purposes and their techniques.

This speech was delivered on December 9, 1862 at the close of one of the bloodiest years and in the midst of one of the greatest turning points in American history The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation had been announced several months earlier, but the Proclamation would not come into effect for another month. American slavery was truly dying, leaving African-Americans in a period of uncertainty

Frederick Douglass was a wise and brave man that grew up in the American slave system. He knows first hand the hardships of being owned by someone and having no way to escape that kind of life. After escaping from slavery he decided to write a book on the hardships of his life. In the book he describes the life of the slave and the many aspects that are not usually learned. These aspects describe the life of a slave in a point of view that is not usually looked at; the point of view of a slave.

During the mid-19th century, the issue of slavery divided the nation between two firmly rooted camps, the southern slave owners and the northern abolitionists. As authors and activists attempted to shed light on the issue of slavery, they appealed to the millions of citizens who were in between camps, whether due to a lack of knowledge or lack of importance in their daily lives. The story of Frederick Douglass is one such literary work that helped inform American citizens on the horrors of slavery, offering a first-hand account as Douglass rose from a slave to an educated free man. Within his narrative, Douglass describes his life as a slave and transition into American society with newfound freedom, highlighting the dehumanizing results of slavery. Furthermore, Douglass appeals to the three Aristotelian appeals throughout his novel, synthesizing the argument that slavery should be abolished. Specifically, Douglass makes use of vivid imagery that appeals to readers’ pathos, inciting horror in his audience at the sight of atrocities committed by slave owners. Moreover, Douglass references a number of prominent literary works when forming analogies between slavery and history, appealing to readers’ ethos by illustrating his education and increasing the credibility of his argument. Finally, Douglass utilizes a parallel sentence structure to appeal to readers’ logos by presenting his arguments in a cohesive and logical manner when writing of the slave’s lack of autonomy over their own lives .

The emancipation proclamation was Abraham Lincoln 's presidential declaration that changed the legal status of slaves from “slave” to “free.” Baldwin’s letter “My dungeon shook” was written in 1963, the hundredth anniversary of the emancipation Proclamation. The significance of the timing of this letter is that he believes that “the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon.” With regard to time he is saying that there has not been much black progress, instead this progress has only begun. He believes the emancipation gave the illusion that the African Americans were free, but it did not fulfill the cause of bringing equality about. Instead, this gave white people the ability to ignore or overlook the injustices that the African Americans faced.

“We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom” stated once Dwight D Eisenhower. Thomas Jefferson, the father of our Declaration of Independence, had the same mentality as him in seeking for freedom. Jefferson decided to write this document as a way of declaring the independence of the United States from Britain. In the document, he states all the harm that Britain has done to the colonists: socially, mentally, and economically. Jefferson just like the colonist wanted peace in their lives, and freedom from the tyranny of King George III. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson uses ethos, pathos, and logos in order to justify their reason of separation from Britain.

Composed by Thomas Jefferson and the representatives in the general congress on the historic date of July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was an expeditious response to the many acts legalized by the British Parliament prohibiting the colonists’ freedom, and a dismissal of a partition to the King by the First Continental Congress. Not only did it oppose British acts of tyranny, but it was also an incentive for many other universal revolutions. Within Jefferson’s argumentative masterpiece, “The Declaration of Independence,” he both condemns the British for their repressive actions, and appeals to all developed countries, although predominantly to both the cruel

Within the speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” by Frederick Douglass, Douglass uses ethos and pathos by providing concrete evidence and having the reader feel emotions throughout his speech. For instance, pathos is being used for the reason that numerous citizens visualize the Fourth of July as a day of independence, happiness, and a family cookout. However, Douglass attempted to have the reader feel sorry, guilt, and uncomfortable for the reason that it is stated to keep in mind of those bleeding children of sorrow who had dreams and hope, but all went to waste. The readers perhaps felt guilty and uncomfortable due to them enjoying themselves on a so call joyful day while the slaves were being treated abysmally. In addition,

Sweat rolled down the backs of an attentive audience. Despite the sweltering temperature, a crowd had gathered to listen to a renowned orator celebrate the birthday of their fine new nation. The day was July 5th, 1852, and Frederick Douglass was poised to deliver what would soon become his most famous speech, “What to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?” Commissioned to be a cheerful hurrah, it instead scathes the unexpected audience, bringing to light the overabundance of hypocrisies dwelling in America’s Independence Day celebration. Asked simply to give a speech, Frederick Douglass seizes the opportunity

The Emancipation Proclamation. John Hope Franklin. Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, 1963, 1965, 1995. 155 pp.

​Abraham Lincoln addressed the people of the United States in his writing “The Gettysburg Address.” Lincoln’s speech addresses how our nation dealt with the struggle of equality and humanity. Lincoln’s strong ideas and beliefs on humanity are shown in his speech: “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion” (503).