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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech For Child Labor

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Rhetorical Analysis Essay Florence Kelley, who was a former social worker, and successfully fought for child labor laws, delivered a speech concerning the labor of children at that time. Before the National American Women Suffrage Association, in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905 she talks about how child labor is wrong, and children shouldn’t be doing the work of adults. Kelley also explains the hours the children work, and how people (at that time) should stand up for them. Kelley uses pathos, logos, and repetition to persuade the audience. In her speech the one rhetorical device that stands out the most is pathos. Kelley makes the audience feel guilt with the way she explains the children’s experiences. “…Children under the age of 16 years old who are earning their bread.” In this example she makes it clear that no child should earn their bread under no circumstances. “Little beasts of burden, robbed of school life that they may work for us.” In this quote Kelley shows how the children, and their lives are affected by the work that they are doing for the adults. …show more content…

Kelley states facts like there are 2 million children working under the age of 16. Mentioning this in the speech, makes the adults feel worse about themselves because the kids are minors. She also states how “…Alabama does better in this respect than any other southern state.” Kelley also states how “North and South Carolina and Georgia place no restriction upon the work of children at night.” The last example of logos is “Alabama limits the children's work at night to eight hours.” Stating this fact makes it seem like Alabama is doing the best out of all the states when in reality 8 hours of work for kids under the age of 16 is

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