Florence Kelley Rhetorical Analysis

Samir Boussarhane
During the early 20th century in the U.S, most children of the lower and middle class were workers. These children worked long dangerous shifts that even an adult would find tiresome. On July 22, 1905, at a convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, Florence Kelley gave a famous speech regarding the extraneous child labor of the time. Kelley’s argument was to add laws to help the workers or abolish the practice completely. Kelley uses pathos to highlight the need for change and diction get her point across to the audience.
Kelley uses pathos to stress the need for change. To show the severity of the problem Kelley writes “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile
By using differents word choice, she is able to lure her audience towards her views. She calls the workers “breadwinners” (12) and then says that the largest amount of these breadwinners was young females. This shows that the young women are worked intensively and are the income of their families. Also, in the previously stated quote (“Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.”(18-22)) she uses the adjective deafening to show that noise was hurting the workers. This example of her diction is used to draw awareness to her audience. Later in the speech, it is stated that while we sleep “little white girls” would be working in the mills. This diction is used to show that not only would poor African American children work in the mills, but Caucasians experienced the same struggle. This allows shows that the majority of the workers were not African descendants but of those of European origins. By using different word choice as well as diction Kelley is able to draw her audience and their attention towards her