Frederick Douglas's Speech On Freedom: The Freedom Of Freedom

Freedom In Rochester, New York on July 5, 1852 Frederick Douglass, a former slave, spoke at the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society on the irony of rejoicing and celebrating the freedom and independence of America, a country in which so much of the population was not free, but rather enslaved (Faigley 351). His speech was a fiery call to arms for the abolitionists at the meeting to not only concern themselves with the issue, but also to take action; not only to listen but to become engaged. His work was a powerful example of the anger, frustration, and raw emotion felt by the millions of slaves in the Americas, and how it could be put to work, exposing the hypocrisy of many white

He then followed by comparing the internal slave trade- which was still legal at the time- with the foreign slave trade- which was illegal; The United States had a squadron of ships along the coast of Africa to prevent the shipping of slaves across the Atlantic Ocean (Faigley 356). Finally, he appealed to the emotions of the audience by describing an event that could have easily been found during times of slavery. Throughout his speech, Douglass advanced his point- that people celebrate freedom without thinking about the fact that not all people are

I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim” (Faigley 355). When he asked rhetorical questions he directly followed them with an answer. Douglass knew what he was trying to get across and used rhetorical questions to be informative rather than to gather information. In using this technique, he implied that he did not need to argue his points because only a fool would argue points that were so morally unambiguous. Here Douglass was speaking with the strength of his convictions. He led with the question of whether slaves should have been considered men. He supported this statement by saying that the south had created many laws for slaves, that would have not been necessary if the slaves had been animals. He continued by suggesting that everyone knew in their hearts that slavery was wrong. Finally, Douglass stated that arguing over whether violence was wrong was a waste of his time, saying “I have better employments for my time and strength, than such arguments would imply” (qtd. Faigley