The Slavery Experience

The Slavery Experience Suffering first hand the brutal experiences of American slavery, abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Soujourner Truth both delivered speeches at the turn of the twentieth century serve to argue for the equal rights of both women and African-Americans in the United States. Although both deliver persuasive speeches through utilizing personal experiences as past slaves and repeatedly emphasizing the hypocritical nature of slavery in America, Frederick Douglass’ speech exhibits a vaster array of vocabulary, along with a more deliberate exemplification of the history of slavery and America’s hypocritical attitude towards it; ensuring his speech embodies a more academic tone as he strategically breaks down the inevitable ending of slavery. However, Truth Soujourner’s speech is equally as impactful as her speech is decidedly less sophisticated in her choice of diction, but compensates for this with a more directed and personal analysis of how slavery as an institution has affected her as an African-American woman. In Frederick Douglass’ speech, What To The Slaves Is The Fourth Of July?, t he abolitionist breaks down the symbolic meaning of the national holiday; presenting a detailed analysis and commentary on why the Fourth of July is rooted in hypocrisy and is nothing more than a “sham”. In his speech, Douglass is able to command the audience’s attention with extreme rhetoric and repeated exemplification which testifies to the barbaric nature of not just the system of slavery, but of America’s passisve attitude towards ensuring its extermination. He begins the speech by proudly condemning the Fourth of July as a reminder to African-Americans of the “gross injustice and cruelty” to which they are “the constant victim,” expanding upon this by characterizing the national holiday as a “thin veil to cover up crimes” which would even “disgrace a nation of savages”. Even in the introduction, the audience is confronted with strong imagery which creates a type of parental dynamic with the speaker - Douglass is chastising America and telling it that they should, and must, do better. Furthermore, he continues his argument by exemplifying his own personal experience as an ex-slave to shed light on the way slavery dehumanizes a large majority of the American population. He recounts a memory of being sold at a common slave auction, detailing every moment to effectively translate the disgusting and frequent way in which African-Americans are dehumanized and treated like animals. Douglass details how the men were “examined like horses”, and the fates of children was “bargains” made in a “state of brutal drunkenness”. This serves as impactful because it not only carries the added weight of a first-hand witness, but through his impeccable imagery and diction, Douglass is able to help illustrate a distinctive imagery for the audience so they are able to understand how truly traumatic these auctions are for the victims. Moreover, the abolitionist further persuades the audience of the emotionally devastating effects of slavery on African-Americans by recalling the screams of mothers as their children were separated from them. However, Douglass’ infamous orator skills are highlighted here as he equates this scenario to witnessing the most “tenderest ties ruthlessly broken”; of course referring to observing the unsettling sight of seeing a mother forcefully torn away from their child. This is significant because through this vivid description of his own personal experiences, especially focusing upon the effects the slave-trade holds for women and children, Douglass is able to conjure up the audience’s empathy by portraying an impactful image of the scene so the audience will place themselves in the shoes of the victims. This exemplification of his own personal experiences as a slave parallels Sojourner Truth ‘s strategy is her speech, although Douglass serves to do this through more eloquent diction. In Truth Soujourner’s speech, Ain’t I A Woman, t he abolitionist directly addresses several white men at the Women's Rights Convention, systematically highlighting the inaccuracy of their arguments with the repeated questioning of whether she was a women her very existence contradicts their logic. An example of this can be observed when Truth addresses one of the audience member’s concerns that women can not receive the same rights as men because they are physically inferior; utilizing how women have to be helped into carriages as an example of women’s innate fragility. Truth counters this by emphasizing that she herself has never been helped into a carriage, continuing this point as she discusses the countless times she “ploughed, and planted” fields without the help of any man. This is similar to Douglass because she is using her own experiences as an ex-slave to help support her point, however Truth takes a different approach with this strategy as her personal experiences aim to illustrate how strong women, and African-Americans, truly are. Douglass utilized his experiences as a slave to more expose the horrific nature of slavery, whereas Truth is highlighting the same grotesque experiences to showcase how African-Americans and women are worthy of equal rights, not as a reaward fro the hardships they have endured, but because they deserve them. Moreover, Truth also instills the theme of motherhood and the tragic effects of slavery on children by recounting her own devastating experience of being separated from her own children. After she finishes her argument addressing the audience concerns with the physical strength of women reminding them they she has repeatedly “bear de lash” and still stands - Truth redirects her argument to counter an assertion that women do not deserve equal rights because they are not as mentally strong as men. She outlines how she has given birth to “thirteen children” and seen the majority of them sold to other plantations, effectively severing her relationships with them. This is incredibly impactful because not only is the speaker pulling in their own experiences as a slave-woman, the most disrespected people in the United States at that time and argurably now, but she is using this awful experience and transforming it into an empowering moment. By sharing this with the audience she is simultaneously ensuring that they recognize they recognize the horrific consequences of slavery, as well as allowing them to understand the emotinal strength needed to endure this and keep on living. In addition, it also serves to elicit empathy from them, similar to what Douglass in his speech, but with the added benefit of her being the victim of the story which serves to make her argument more persuasive. Douglass and Truth both exhibit several similarities in their speeches, which include the strategic implementation of their individual experiences as slaves, as well as the repeated emphasis of the hypocritical and disgraceful attitude of American towards these traumatic effects of the slavery; However, the manner in which they present their speeches differ greatly. In Douglass's speech, the abolitionist is addressing a crowd of over five hundred, so the self-educated oratator instills more impassioned rhetoric and vivid imagery in order to grab the audience’s attention and make them understand that their nationalism is based upon nothing but lies and hypocrisy. In Truth’s case, she is addressing a much smaller audience and was not commissioned to write a speech beforehand, she is simply adding her own contribution to a convention designed to allow people to start a conversation concerning equal rights for women. Her environment is more intimate and less formal, so she is allowed to adopt a more casual tone and is able to directly address each argument she disagreed with at the convention. These speeches are equally as impactful in different ways, and go to demonstrate the varied ways in which slavery impacted African-American people throughout the years and the numerous arguments to support its eradication. Through Douglass, the audience was forced to reexamine their nationalism, and recognize that the very beliefs and values in which the founding fathers built the nation upon will not be realized while the “peculiar institution” still exists. Moreover, through Truth’s speech, the audience were challenged with knowledge that the only thing standing in between the equal rights of women and African-Americans is their own internal prejudices. With her repeated exemplification of her own experiences as a slave-woman, followed by the reiteration of questioning whether she is a woman, Truth was able to strategically counter each argument presented at the convention by simply pointing to her own existence for existence not only served to highlight the incredible resilience of humanity, but also emphasize how equal rights is the obvious future of the United States. Even after his repeated reference to the grotesque effects and protection of slavery, Douglass finished his speech on a more hopeful note, noting how he believes the “doom of slavery is certain” as “intelligence is penetrating the darkests corners of the globe”. This sentiment reflects that of Truth’s speech - and is what ultimately makes both their speeches impactful - which is this undeniable hope that humans can and will do better, despite the bleak circumstances of the present and past. A powerful idea as it encourages people to strive to do better not because a better future is guaranteed, but because it is possible.