Douglass appeals to Logos, Pathos, and Ethos, He makes a very effective speech that probably wasn’t what his audience was expecting. Instead of just saying how July 4 sound be accepted as the start of the country, he says that the holiday doesn’t mean anything to him.
One of the most powerful examples of rhetoric strategies that he uses is his comparison of the white and black races. He shows that even though the whites seem to value the blacks only as animals, they do the exact same things that whites do. This shows the hypocritical nature of the whites and is most likely a good strategy to get the whites motivated.
The other important part in his speech is the way he turns the conventional wisdom of the abolitionists on its head. He says that instead of trying to show people that slavery is wrong, people must get involved. People know that slavery is wrong so it’s not a challenge to get them to understand, it’s a challenge to get people to do something.
These powerful arguments all help to make his speech much more effective.
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Tony, I like the points you stated about Douglass and slavery. I felt that logos was the only appeal in this speech, but i now see where you were coming from in recognizing pathos. You hit some good things about rhetoric strategies and Douglass' opinions about the abolitionists. Your post was quite powerful and i agree with your statements.
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