Florence Kelley: Championing Against Child Labor

During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the fight for equal and just treatment for both women and children was one of the most historically prominent movements in America. Courageous women everywhere fought, protested and petitioned with the hope that they would achieve equal rights and better treatment for all, especially children. One of these women is known as Florence Kelley. On July 22, 1905, Kelley made her mark on the nation when she delivered a speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association, raising awareness of the cruel truth of the severity behind child labor through the use of repetition, imagery and oxymorons.
There are several examples of repetition present throughout her argument, but there is one phrase in

particular that stands out above all. Kelley makes a point to reuse the phrase “while we sleep” in order to inflict a feeling of guilt upon her audience. She does so in order to shed light on the fact that there are thousands of children who don’t get the privilege to get a good-night's sleep unlike most adults, that there are children working day in and day out on very little, to no sleep. By making her audience recognize this fact, she is also able to communicate that they hold some responsibility behind this cruel reality, but because of this, they have the power to stop it. The effectiveness of Kelley’s argument is significantly fueled by the simple utilization of this rhetoric device.
Kelley builds up on the previously established pathos using imagery. Found in lines 18-22 and 33-35, Kelley uses a considerable amount of imagery to illustrate the inhuman conditions of the work mills, and then she brilliantly evokes even more sympathy from her audience when she describes the workers who subject themselves to such conditions as “a girl, six or seven, just tall enough to reach the bobbins.” This not only reiterates the cruelty behind child labor, but amplifies it. Kelley’s final use of imagery is found in lines 48-51 when she describes a young girl who, on her birthday, is found, “carrying her pail of midnight luncheon as happier people carry their midday luncheon.” Unlike her other uses of imagery whose purpose is to communicate the barbarity behind child labor, this example demonstrates the sadness these children faced. This image captures how children are forced into working preposterous hours at preposterous times instead of living the childhood filled with happiness and innocence that every person should be entitled to.
Finally, the utilization of oxymorons provided her argument with a sarcastic tone to once again communicate the horrible reality of child labor.

Kelley describes working all night long as a “pitiful privilege” in lines 44 and 45. In addition to yielding such a sarcastic tone, this rhetoric device also shows how pitiful it is that children see their 14th birthday not as a happy milestone that is normally expected, but as an opportunity, like Kelley said, a privilege to start working. This pushes her audience to consider that though this may indeed be a beneficial privilege to some, it is a great injustice in the eyes of another. This injustice is later reiterated by the comparing child labor to “great evil” when she states no one will be able to free their consciences from participation in such injustices until women are given the right to vote. Not only does this intensify the leading purpose of her speech, but further motivates her audience to take action in fighting for her cause.
Florence Kelley’s speech enlightened her audience, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, along with all other Americans, of the severity of child labor, convincing them to take action and fight for a change. In conclusion, the use of repetition, imagery and oxymorons in such a well-constructed speech is what enabled her to effectively communicate this message and heavily influence the ending of child labor laws and the beginning of a more honorable

era.