A Great Rhetor

In my Philosophy of Race class, we discussed Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”. It was my job to research and analyze the speech and while doing so I found Frederick Douglass’ use of rhetoric to be very powerful and very effective. Frederick Douglass is a master of rhetoric and in this particular speech his rhetoric is especially moving. He first states that to do the slave, the 4^th of July is not a day of independence, but it is a day when black slaves can look at the hypocrisy of the United States. He says it is a holiday in which black people are mocked when white people talk about liberty, justice, and freedom. When Frederick Douglass talks about this, he appeals to the emotions and minds of the people listening. Many people who were listening at the time probably never thought about how the day of liberation of the United States just brought more pain and suffering to others. In addition, throughout the speech, his choice of words is so powerful and so descriptive that it is hard to not picture the descriptions in your head.

Here is an example,

“To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”(What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, Frederick Douglass)

The words are very harsh and crude, but they were necessary at the time to express, his emotions as well as for the slaves who couldn’t speak up about this issue. His use of rhetoric to send a message to the audience is clearly seen and was quite effective of getting the effect he wanted.

Take the time to skim through his speech (it is quite long) and see other great examples of rhetoric Frederick Douglass provides. 


What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Frederick Douglass

The Hand Teleprompter

In class we explored the four different modes of speeches which are manuscript, memorized, impromptu, and extemporaneous. Each of the different modes have its different pros and cons and are used in different situations such as the manuscript during a news cast or an impromptu speech given during our class about our scars. The extemporaneous mode of speech is used most frequently for presentations and speeches of sorts by long preparation and possible note cards to remind the speaker throughout the speech or presentation. I don’t completely know if this example was an extemporaneous method of speech but I still thought it would be interesting to share.

Sarah Palin during the Q & A for the Tea Party was caught using a “hand teleprompter”. To be a politician of her status where she is recognized nation-wide and is a possible nominee to be our future president, I am really fearful of the politics in the United States because people will allow unprepared and irresponsible representatives to be nominees for such an important part in our country. I knew Sarah Palin was not the smartest of the politicians in the United States but to be so ill prepared for a Q & A session for her own party and to have the nerve to write “notes” on her hands for something as serious as being a presidential nominee is very disrespectful to the party as well as the citizens of the United States.

This is probably a very bad example of the extemporaneous method and some might exaggerate this to be the manuscript method (I’m trying to be funny). So ladies and gentlemen, this is just something not to do on live national television, or even for our speeches coming up.