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Atlanta Exposition Address Essay

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Booker T. Washington was born a slave on a Virginia farm, founded the Tuskegee Institute, and became one of the most influential African-American intellectuals of the 1900s, he then gave a moving speech to white men in the cotton states. He used anecdotes, analogies, imagery, and extended metaphors to create a moving and notable speech. The Atlanta Exposition address was a speech given by the representative of the African-American race. Washington wanted his fellow African-Americans to act rationally and calmly. Even though they were treated badly he wanted them to remain practical and omit any protests. Civil rights was a very big issue and the ignorant statement the African-Americans were making was getting out of hand and potentially counteracting the initial goal of freedom. The imagery Washington used; “there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem”. This device is fulfilling to reader in which they compare poems to tilling fields. He started his address off with an anecdote of a ship lost at sea. The effect this anecdote had was to mentally engage the reader in a way to relate and have a …show more content…

He warns them of the power the African-American race can potentially hold but currently does not express. The appeal to pathos is within his convincing structure with figurative language, biblical quotes, and vividly strong implemental language. The parallel structure Washington uses in duplicating “Cast down” or “Casting down,” emphasizes the self-help symbolism. He expresses his religion in his reference to God, “our beloved South a new heaven and new earth.” which appeals to ethos. The effect of the analogy used in the end, “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” gave the audience an image of the success the South would have if working together was a peaceful

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