Florence Kelly Child Labor Speech
During Florence Kelly’s child labor speech she uses many different rhetorical strategies to express her feelings on child labor laws and conditions to working for women in different states . The strategies she uses are purposefully meant to affect the audience’s view on child laws and working women in order to achieve her goal.
Kelly first uses imagery and appeal to pathos in order to pull in parents. She pulls in parents because they are the audience she is reaching and they can relate to this speech more than anyone else. She goes into details and remarks “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
On September 5, 1995 Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech to the United Nations 4th World Conference during a Women Plenary Session, located in Beijing, China. Clinton spoke about how women around the world were not treated equally, how women rights should be equal to human rights, and the ghastly abuse and discrimination women faced around the world. The reason for the conference was to strengthen women, families, and societies in order to empower women to taking control of their lives and not be subject to such discrimination. She emphasized how education, health care, jobs, and political rights were not equal between genders and that the world needed to change. Clinton gave a very convincing speech because of her use of rhetorical techniques. The use of pathos, ethos, logos, and anaphora created a powerful, persuasive argument against the way women were treated around the world. Clintons main goal of this speech was to appeal to the audience and convince them that this is unequal treatment is an immense matter and needs to be addressed all over the world.
For years the LGBT community has been consistently denied the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts, and it wasn’t until last year that same sex marriage became legal throughout the United States. However, they are not the only minorities being discriminated against in the United States. That is why Dolores Huerta, a well-known civil rights activist, points out that people who have experienced oppression should come together to achieve equality. In her keynote speech at the 21st National Conference on LGBT Equality, Dolores Huerta uses ethos, logos, and pathos as an effective way to inspire her audience to make a change in society.
Growing up wasn’t always easy for Kelly. She was the baby of the family, with four older brothers and sisters. Sitting in Catholic school, she tried to be the cute little girl she was supposed to be but on the playground, she was a terror. At the age of 5, she joined her first soccer league, which happened to be a boys’ team. Things stayed the same way until she got to high school. She began to notice boys and began to date. No one in her family had ever talked to her about the “birds and the bees,” or even about dating. Instead, independence, self-reliance, and strength were the most important things. If they had problems, they worked it out on their own. This served her poorly when she found herself in trouble with the Air Force years later. (pg. 9)
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.
In Florence Kelley’s 1905 speech to the Philadelphia convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association, she accentuates the obligatory need to reform the working conditions for young children.
Throughout Kelley’s speech, she utilizes imagery to help prove her view that child labor is wrong. She points out that while “we sleep” there are “several thousand little girls… working in the textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool.” The listener of the speech can visualize the dreadful scene in which thousands of little girls are working in the textile mills. This imagery evokes a sense of sorrow from the listener. Also, the word “deafening” adds to the listener’s understanding that not only are young children working, but they are working dangerous and dreadful jobs. She also depicts an image of a girl who “ on her thirteenth birthday” could work from “ six at night until six in the morning.” This detail suggests that there is little happiness in the lives of these young children
Kelley uses the logic brought up by such questions to emphasize how giving women the right to vote is a good vote can help end child labor. Another example of this is her description of a little girl who, “on her thirteenth birthday, could start away from her home at half past five in the afternoon, carrying her pail of midnight luncheon”. The emphasis on the innocence of children portrays the pity and sympathy that the audience should feel. She creates a scenario that seems much too real when she says “The children make our shoes in the shoe factories; they knit our stockings, our knitted underwear.
She was now getting into the field of labor agitation and would change America forever. In 1903, she organized a march in which children, mutilated from their jobs, marched the streets to the home of Theodore Roosevelt in order to draw attention to the grueling and wicked child labor laws. “Federal laws against child labor would not come for decades, but for two months that summer, Mother Jones, with her street theater and speeches, made the issue front-page news.” This shows how after several attempts from previous progressive reformers, Jones was the only one whose protests were powerful and effective enough to open people’s eyes to the issues. A reason that Jones had become so effective was that of her exploration and observations. She frequently visited factories to observe the cruel working conditions in which people worked in and interviewed workers to get a feel for them and understand the brutality of the work. She stated herself that because of rough conditions, “The brain is so crushed as to be incapable of thinking, and one who mingles with these people soon discovers that their minds like their bodies are wrecked. Loss of sleep and loss of rest gives rise to abnormal appetites, indigestion, shrinkage of statue, bent backs and aching hearts.” By examining workplaces, she was able to gather empathy and sympathy for the workers who were suffering.
Leonora M. Barry was born in County Cork, Ireland, on August 13th, 1849. She was raised by her parents, John and Honor Granger Kearney (en.wikipedia.org). Leonora lost her mother at an early age and faced many family hardships. But, she persevered and became a school teacher at the age of 15. In 1880, Leonora’s husband died and she was left to raise three children alone. Leonora needed money so she got a job in a factory where she worked for two years. The factory was a miserable place to work with terrible hourly wages. However, she needed the money to support her family. In 1884, Leonora Barry joined the Knights of Labor and campaigned to abolish child labor. Leonora was elected to travel to different factories and record her observations of poor working conditions in factories for women. She traveled to the biggest industrial cities. This task prompted Leonora to write “Organizing Women Workers.” () Leonora was also prompted to write the article by her personal beliefs and views. She had worked in a factory for two years making no more than 65 cents in her first week but she pushed through and stuck with that factory job for two years (www.patheos.com).
In Florence Kelley's speech to the people attending the NAWSA convention, she uses emotional appeal to motivate her audience to convince their male counterparts to legalize voting for women, and also to persuade the males to help put an end to child labor.
Lia Mills, writer of an anti-abortion speech, influences her audiences to believe that all life is worth holding on to regardless of your definition of life. Mills uses several tactics to portray her points, whether it be appealing to the emotion or the logic in a person’s mind. She utilizes these tactics quite well throughout her writing making this speech very powerful towards her audience.
From the humble beginning of Social Work there have been many people who have tirelessly worked, fought, and dedicated their life advocating for the people in our world who are disadvantaged. Furthermore, many of these people have been women who not only were strong enough to fight for the rights of others, but also had to fight the forces whom thought that women where in some way second hand citizens themselves. These women were brave and determined enough to break out of the box that society placed them in, and stand up for the social injustices that they seen taking place, and try to make a difference. Of the many women from the early days of Social Work none fought harder for social reform than Grace Abbott. Grace Abbott spent her life fighting to enact legislation for the betterment of society as a whole. This work would eventually earn her the nickname “the mother of America’s forty-three million children.”
In, “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker” written by Benjamin Franklin (one of the Founding Fathers) in 1747, brought up the disparities that were between men and women within the judicial system. Also, “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker” also briefly points out, how religion has been intertwined with politics. All throughout “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker,” Benjamin Franklin uses very intense diction and syntax to help support what he is trying to express to the rest of society. Also writing this speech in the view point of a women, greatly helps establish what he is trying to say. If Benjamin Franklin was to write it as a man, the speech my have not had the same passionate effect as it currently has.
“Child Labor in U.S. History.” Child Labor Public Education Project. 2011. Web. 2. April. 2014
Rita Pierson has been a child educator for over forty years, teaching junior high, elementary school, and special education. She was also a testing coordinator, an assistant principal, and a counselor, bringing a special energy into every role. Rita Pierson gives this speech to an intended audience of educators throughout the world, showing how relationships can affect a child’s academic studies. I believe Rita’s speech is appropriate for her intended audience because there are some educators out there who do not believe in relationships can alter a child’s view on education.