Rhetorical Analysis Of The Appeal By Stephan H. Browne

“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” 1852 speech by Frederick Douglass is a passionate speech that cuts across the difficulty of black slaves particularly in the pre-Civil War America. Seemingly, the speech is rationale, elaborates, and incorporates emotional touch. On the other hand, the “Ar’n't I a Woman?” speech by Sojourner Truth is remarkable in its ability to incorporate historical precedents and sense of humor. Importance, is that in the speech Truth makes use of the biblical accounts such as the birth of Jesus through the Virgin Mary as a strategy to show how superior women are in scriptures but diminished in real society. Therefore, the essay seeks to display the similarities and differences between the two speeches as well as

In writing the Appeal, Walker was looking to initiate a drastic move amongst the black population of The United States of America. Those who believe in the Methodist doctrine believe that all people are created by God, in His image, and regardless of sex, race, or color, all people have the same inherent rights and Walker, who was adamant about change, incorporated this belief throughout his writing. His appeal to the American public however was not only to abolish slavery, but once slaves were free, to allow them all the Biblical rights they are due, as the Egyptians had to do when the Israelis were freed from slavery under Pharaoh. As an abolitionist urging black people, free and enslaved, to rise up against their oppressors by any means necessary, especially by violence, Walker’s purpose in writing the Appeal was to persuade his audience that enough was enough and that the time had come to take a political, social, and economical change.

Therefore, he appears quite compelling when he attempts to bring out the connection between religion and slavery. Looking at what Douglass went through as a slave, it is unfortunate that his act of reading the Bible was considered a violation of the law. At one point, Douglass narrated that his master’s wife offered Douglass with help to read and write. However, due to “advice” given by her husband and the connection between the Bible and slavery, Douglass’s master’s wife turned against him and was now cruel and bitter towards him.

In order to successfully write rhetorically, an author must persuade an audience as if to win a debate. To do this, the author must create a trustworthy bond with the audience, support his claim through reason, and create emotion in the audience that compels them to leap out of their seats and take action. Martin Luther King Jr. attempted to do this when he wrote an open letter while in his jail cell after a peaceful debate against segregation. His lettered response was guided at a statement by eight white Alabama clergymen saying that segregation should be fought in court and not on the streets. King uses a combination of three rhetorical appeals to accomplish his rhetor; ethical, logical and emotional. The three appeals used together

Douglass’s narrative is a courageous work, as it confronts the slavery institution, and the misuse of Christianity by the slave owners

Many people believe that Christians played a great role in abolishing slavery. However, Douglass’ ideas about religion and its connection to slavery shine a light on the dark side of Christianity. Douglass’ account of his own life is a very eloquent first hand retelling of the suffering and cruelty that many slaves were going through. His account gives a detail of the ills that were committed against the slaves. The atrocities committed by the various different masters varied in intensity depending on the masters’ individual personality (Glancy 42). This first hand narrative gives us a glimpse in to the connection between religion (Christianity) and slavery.

Since the beginning of slavery, leaders called on their faith to justify the immoral actions of the slave trade. These strong preachers for their communities’ strategically defined the meanings of scriptures to sway members into the ideals of North vs. South. Richard Furman and John G. Fee are historical activists using scripture to inform the community of their views. Both figures, arguments juxtaposed reveal the stark differences in their interpretations of the connection between human nature and scripture.

Although slavery has long been abolished, there is no doubt that there were important pieces of literature being produced at this time. The most significant pieces of literature were those against slavery. Anti-slavery writings gave people a closer look into what it is was like to be a slave. Two writings in particular played an essential role in expressing the mistreatment of slaves and the African American race itself. The Narrative of Frederick Douglass and David Walker's Appeal, explained the problems slaves has in learning, hypocrisy in Christianity within the slave owner, and the action slaves should take.

The rhetorical situation refers to “a situation in which people’s understanding can be changed through messages.” (Zarefsky, 12). The rhetorical situation analysis consists of four elements: audience, occasion, speaker and speech, each assessing the quality of speech. In this essay, I will analyze the rhetorical situation of the historical speech “The Challenger Address” delivered by the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

Defending slavery demonstrate the opinions and knowledge that the Southerners held concerning blacks and slavery. Paul Finkelman talks about slave legitimacy in colonial America. He argues that the first defense of slavery became visible after the end of American Revolution; it attempted to justify continuous forced labor with the Declaration of Independence. This essay aims at critically analyzing ideologies and racial theories that Southerners promoted to defend slavery, which included racial, political, legal, economic, and religious ideologies. Most specifically, this essay will discuss the legitimacy of slavery, in the earlier days, and justify this idea by using the religion and

Christianity was new to most slaves who had been abducted from their native country and taken to the Americas. Some were hesitant to abandon their old traditions for the Christ their white captors taught of, but after several generations of slavery, most black slaves had succumbed to relentless preaching. However, the Christianity that took hold within the slave community was often interpreted differently, conveying different messages to pockets of slave population. The use of Christianity in slavery was a double edged sword, creating not only a tool for control, but a weapon of discontent in slave communities. Examining the works of Richard Allen and the stories of Nat Turner, create a narrative of how Christianity was applied differently to slaves.

Harriet Jacobs, a black woman who escapes slavery, illustrates in her biography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) that death is preferable to life as a slave due to the unbearable degradation of being regarded as property, the inevitable destruction of slave children’s innocence, and the emotional and physical pain inflicted by slave masters. Through numerous rhetorical strategies such as allusion, comparison, tone, irony, and paradoxical expression, she recounts her personal tragedies with brutal honesty. Jacobs’s purpose is to combat the deceptive positive portrayals of slavery spread by southern slave holders through revealing the true magnitude of its horrors. Her intended audience is uninvolved northerners, especially women, and she develops a personal and emotionally charged relationship with them.

During the final years of legal slave ownership in the United States, the slave narrative became a popular way for literate enslaved people to express their anti-slavery stance through their own testimony. Two of the most influential writers on the slave narrative topic were the autobiographical authors Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. Since Douglas and Jacobs were both born in a similar time period, there are many similarities found in their works. Douglass’s Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave is closely comparable to Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl when analyzing how they represented their enslavement in their autobiographies. The two authors have similar ideas when portraying their struggles with forced ignorance. Their writing also contains parallels with the corrupting power of slavery for the slave owners, as well as the parallels in pointing out the hypocrisies of using the bible to defend slavery. These similarities can be explained in part due to Douglass and Jacobs following the same basic slave narrative outline to maintain the shared goal of abolishing slavery in the United States.

Covey underscores how slaveowners’ defense of slavery with religion was something said and not done. In fact, Douglass even asserts that slaves have a solid faith and the “help” of their white masters is not needed and even detrimental. As opposed to Mr. Covey’s false Christianity, Douglass attributes slaves to having true Christianity, evidencing this by his own great ability to sing versus his master’s poor singing. Mr. Covey was “a very poor singer himself, the duty of raising the hymn generally came upon [Douglass]” (82). Douglass’ ability to sing the hymnals represent his strong grasp on Christianity, whereas Mr. Covey’s poor singing portrays his hypocrisy and distance from the faith. Contrary to the plantation myth, Mr. Covey, the slaveowner is dependent on Douglass, his slave. This role reversal emphasizes the how the South’s claim to be carrying out a Christian duty was flawed.

Fredrick Douglass and Henry Melville both critique Christianity as it was practiced in 19th-century America. Douglass illuminates the aspect of Christianity in relation to the way Christians also uphold the institution of slavery. He views it has ironic that those who claim the Christian faith also believe that there is nothing wrong in the practice of slavery. Douglass questions how one can be a true Christian and still not see that slavery in morally and religiously wrong. He ultimately critiques the way people practice the faith and still uphold slavery. Douglass goes as far to say that the slave master’s even become crueler when they find religion, because then they feel as if they can do no wrong. As Douglass states in relation to slavery and religion, “Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other – devils dressed in angels’ robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise.”