Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelley's Speech On Child Labor

Florence Kelley, social worker and reformer, argued for child labor laws in a speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia in 1905. To achieve her purpose, Kelley prods her audience of both men and women to fight for the right for women to vote in order to free the children from slavery.

Three Years after “Speech before Congress” was delivered by Carrie Chapman Catt, a well-known leader of the women 's suffragist movement were women granted the right to vote and receive all rights as citizens. Catt’s speech was a major stepping stone for Congress to pass the 19th amendment. She was able to deliver her speech in a manner, which was persuasive to congress because it encompassed all the rhetorical appeals. Not only did she describe benefits to enfranchising women, she also spoke to the patriotism of her audience to further her cause. Catt crafted her argument by presenting herself with authority and knowledge, she also used undeniable logic by referring historical precedence, and she evoked sympathy in her audience by describing the trials of disenfranchised women to create a powerful argument.

Kelley initiates the speech by appealing to her audiences’ emotions. She begins with claiming there are “…two million children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread.” She says this to emphasize that one’s own child may be having to slave over work for their family to survive. Florence Kelley then goes on to say that, “Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase….” She utilizes the term “increase” in this statement to accentuate how fast the problem at hand is developing and that they need to start making a change now.

Florence Kelley uses a couple of rhetorical strategies to convey her message and view on child labor in America. Kelly conveys her message on child labor in a way that partially has negative effects on the reader's emotion, but rather explaining her devices in sarcastic and guilty tones. These rhetorical devices appeal to the reader's mind and emotion and wants the reader to feel sorry/guilty and put a stop to child labor.

There are many ways that Florence Kelley uses rhetorical devices to convey her message about child labor to her audience. One way that she does this is through appealing to the audience’s emotion. Kelly states that”... while we sleep little white girls will be working tonight in the mills those states, working eleven hours at night”(Kelly). This appeals to emotion because the thought of a little girl working in a dangerous mill, while others are sleep is sad and depressing. Another reason that this is part of the text appeals to emotion during this time frame she gave the speech is because the thought of a little “white girl” working in the Mills was more important and more appealing than a little black girl

She uses phrases such as, “while we sleep” and “work all night”. This use of repetition alludes to Americans not being awake to this urgent issue affecting hundreds of thousands of children. In order to persuade her audience, she must make them feel guilty of not have taken action before. In lines 89, 92, and 96, Kelley repeats the phrases “free the children”, “for the sake of the children”, and “freeing the children from toil!”. This creates an image that children are slaves to their employers and they must be saved, a sense of urgency. Kelley also repeats the idea that the women should feel guilty for not taking action against child labor as they are the fortunate ones that are able to. She does this to persuade the convention to talk to the important political and wealthy figures they know in order to improve child labor and working

Florence Kelley’s speech regarding child labor elicits pity from the audience. She describes in detail the hours and conditions under which the children labor, and this appeals to pathos because her audience will be able to feel sorry for and sympathize with the working children. In order to evoke feelings of compassion, Kelley continuously repeats the images of children working throughout the night while capable adults get to rest peacefully. The adults would be compelled to imagine themselves in the children’s shoes working for endless hours. Kelley’s use of repetition and imagery in her speech encourages the audience to have pity on the young, innocent, and laboring children. Her anecdote about a child working as soon as she turns thirteen

In Florence Kelly’s speech at the convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, she explains that child labor is hurting the youth. Specifically she states that children are robbed of school life and their work should be left to the workingmen voters. In order to convey her message about child labor to her audience, Kelly applies pathos to evoke emotion, repetition, and description. Kelly’s message about child labor included pathos, which was used in order to show the struggles that these child workers went through.

Child labor has been an issue we Americans have tolerated with for an extended period of time; longer than we should have. At the time of Kelley presenting her speech, July 22 1905, she stated we had “two million children under the age of sixteen years” who were part of the working class. This statistic illustrates our dire need to decrease and stop the use of children as workers in dangerous places like factories. Kelley states these children are as young as “six and seven” to “sixteen;” which only helps emphasize her point that young children, our futures, do not need to be put in these situations. She helps proves this throughout ter speech by appealing to our emotional, and logical aspects and then also establishing and presenting her credibility.

The origins of the American women’s suffrage movement are commonly dated from the public protest meeting held in Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848. At that historic meeting, the right of women to join with men in the privileges and obligations of active, voting citizenship was the one demand that raised eyebrows among the hundred or so women and men attending. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the meeting’s prime organizer, remembered it, many in the audience, even including the distinguished radical Lucretia Mott, worried that the demand for political equality was either too advanced or too morally questionable to include on the launching platform of the new movement. Joined only by abolitionist and ex-slave Frederick Douglass, Stanton argued for the importance of women’s equal participation in the electoral process. In the end, the suffrage resolution passed, the only one of the meeting’s thirteen demands not to be unanimously embraced. From that point it was another three-quarters of a century to the 1920 ratification of the nineteenth

Today, if women are asked about how they gained their full rights including the right to vote, most would recognize Susan B. Anthony, a leader of the women’s rights movement that never gave up. Born and raised in an outspoken Quaker household, Anthony believed from a young age that all should be treated equally despite their gender. She took after her father, who had radical views on issues such as temperance and slavery. Susan B. Anthony, a leader for most of her life, fought endlessly in a battle against those of ignorance and unfair views pertaining to the rights of women. She was a very important asset during the Women’s Suffrage Movement while revolutionizing American History. Reaching out to organizations pertaining to the Temperance Movement, Women’s Labor, and Abolitionism to help her own cause, Susan supported the Women’s Rights Movement day-in and day-out no matter where she went. Her works as a leader and suffragist predicted and inspired the future for the rights of women; eventually her successors earned the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, or the 19th Amendment. Susan B. Anthony’s efforts greatly effected the Women’s Rights Movement.

With voting season among us, it seems only suitable to delve into the impactful speech given by Susan B. Anthony, which created not steps, but leaps into the women’s suffrage movement. The speech was delivered in the year 1872 in Monroe County, New York. It is believed that this specific speech derived from Anthony’s fiery angst following her arrest for casting an illegal vote in the 1872 presidential election. It was an arrest which she was tried and fined one-hundred dollars for.

Susan B. Anthony was a feminist who played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. In her speech On Women’s Right to Vote she stated “It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime but, instead simply exercised my rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.” Susan B. Anthony was accused of breaking a so-called law by voting without a legitimate right to vote, but she believed that she didn’t commit any crime. Although women were considered lesser than men during this time, she traveled to different places around the world to convince others to support women’s right to vote. The movement for women’s rights launched to national level in 1848 and it wasn’t until August 18, 1920 when American women were granted the fight to

In the late nineteenth century, woman was seen as a sign of weakness and seek for equality. Some of their jobs include teaching, secretary, and cooking. The most noticeable situation that occurs is that women were never given the opportunity to voice their opinion on what kind of job that they should do. In addition, voting at this point of time for women was quite impractical. The wartime was a difficult time for women who wanted to capitalize on an opportunity. They wanted a job to prove to men that they are much stronger. However, there was hope when the U.S. woman’s rights movement began. A woman by the name of Elizabeth Cady Stanton started the movement at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Elizabeth stated that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” proclaimed the Declaration of Sentiments that the delegates produced, “that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In James Roark book, The American Promise, Stanton and fellow activist, Susan B. Anthony, launched the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. This group was created to raise awareness to women who desire to vote. In addition, the two activists felt that they could be a role model for woman around the world by taking action. Over the years, an uprising of woman’s protesting emerges as a national attention. In addition, women wanted access to higher wages, social

Alice Paul once said “There will never be a new world until women are a part it.” Alice Paul and Lucy Burns shaped the voting rights in America. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were suffragist who changed women’s role during the twentieth century by holding suffrage campaigns and forming organizations. Their campaign, reconciles with the values of the social work profession today. The values Alice Paul and Lucy Burn reconcile with was social justice and dignity and worth of the individual. Alice Paul and Lucy Burn understood the importance of empowering individuals and the importance for women to vote. Women who votes have the chance to elect a president who have their best interest and focus on their needs. However, before women earned the right to vote, women just stayed home with their kids and did housework. Women were considered weaker than men; they were not able to work. For this reason, women were discriminated against jobs, education and their right to vote. Like many social workers, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns understood gender equality and fought against it.