1. Sabrina Franek
American Literature
Dr. Delmendo
11/28/11
paper ID: 217184215
The Rhetoric of Frederick Douglass
Rhetoric can be understood as the art of persuasion. The rise of rhetoric started
with early Greek practitioners, known as Sophists. Since then, rhetoric has blossomed
from classical rhetoric into something more modern. However, classical rhetoric is still a
very useful tool to analyze speeches in particular. Frederick Douglass continued the
classical rhetoric tradition within “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
According to James A. Herrick’s The History and Theory of Rhetoric, an
Introduction, Fourth Edition, sophists were seen as wise and skilled people, with an
authority to speak. “Sophists earned a reputation for ‘extravagant displays of language’
and for astonishing audiences with their ‘brilliant styles...colorful appearances and
flamboyant personalities’” (Herrick, 36). Sophists would not simply just practice the art
of persuasion, but would talk in a way that would sway the audience to their side, by
hammering down the notion that their side was the only right side, that there was to be
no room for middle ground. An ideal speech by a sophist would hit and amaze the
audience to take their side without any reason for debate left in the room.
Sophists had qualities of virtue and personal excellence, known as
“arete” (Herrick, 37). This can directly be seen in Frederick Douglass, who can be
described as a modern-day sophist due to his speech styles within “What to the Slave is

2. the Fourth of July?” Sophists would take a particular stance within a dialect, and would
oftentimes state an “endoxa”, or a widely believed and moral premise (Herrick, 38).
Within Frederick Douglass’ speech, one can identify an endoxa that freedom and
equality for all people is what America’s Constitution stands for. Frederick Douglass
then uses this endoxa to fully support his argument that slavery is an atrocity that
should not be carried out within the United States of America.
Sophists would oftentimes wait for an opportune moment to make their point,
also known as the “kairos” (Herrick, 39). What better for Douglass to make his plea for
absolute freedom for all within America than on the Fourth of July, Independence Day?
With this strategy, he is paying homage to the sophists of ancient Greece. He first starts
with “epainos”, which is praise that also serves another function, which is to also cast a
shadow of blame (Herrick, 95). Douglass first starts the audience off with a praise of the
glorious United States of America, and how firmly she stood against the oppression
from the British Monarchy. However, with this praise, he casts a blame. By using words
such as “you”, and “your” to send a message to the audience that it is their nation, more
than his, he casts a sense of uneasiness over the crowd. A prime example of this can
be found within Douglass’ speech when he states:
It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your
political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to
the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back
to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to
the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and
that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of

3. another year of your national life; and that reminds you that
the Republic of America is now 76 years old. I am glad,
fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. (Douglass,
2102)
The praise can be found with his excellent retelling of the beginning of the United States
of America, but the blame can be found within his subliminal way of shifting the praise
only to the audience, and to their forefathers, and taking himself out of the picture, as if
this is not a nation that he calls his. The blame deepens when Frederick Douglass then
asks “Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here
to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are
the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that
Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” (Douglass, 2107)
Frederick Douglass then moves to directly attack slavery within the United
States. He knows that the constraints (that which has the power to constrain the
decision needed for people to take Douglass side) (Herrick, 243) are huge. Civil war is
looming, and so he makes a personal and heart-felt statement of a story, an utterance
about the internal slave trade. His heartfelt plea culminates with:
See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! weeping, as she
thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! The
drove moves tardily. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed
their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the
discharge of a rifle...The crack you heard, was the sound of
the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was of the woman

4. you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered under the
weight of her child and her chains! (Douglass, 2111)
He utilizes this very emotional utterance, an appeal (an emotional method to engage the
audience’s thoughts) (Herrick, 28) to make the exigence, “an imperfection marked by
urgency” (Herrick, 244) clear to the audience, that slavery must be put to an end
immediately for the United States to be truly a great and powerful nation. This utterance
is an appeal to the audience that is aesthetically displeasing to imagine, as he paints a
gruesome scene of a slave drove moving to New Orleans, people sold as animals and
as property, to push the exigence into the forefront of the audience’s minds.
He then makes this utterance more personal by telling of his own story as a
child, “born amid such sights and scenes” (Douglass, 2111). This ties him directly to
the issue, driving his point even clearer on how wrong slavery is. This makes it seem
as an abhorrent beast, and much like sophists, Douglass uses this appeal to make the
opposing side that slavery is acceptable seem like a horribly planned argument to
make.
Douglass does not merely stop with an appeal, but goes back to casting a
blame, this time on the Church itself, holding it just as responsible. With this drastic
shift, he has went from capturing the audience’s attention with his heart-felt plea, to
pointing a finger at the next culprit in his rhetorical speech. He states that “the church
of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides
with the oppressors” (Douglass, 2114). He makes note that this is the Church within
this country, due to the fact that the English Church, the country that America has
severed from has already “bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and

5. restored him to his liberty” (Douglass, 2116). This can be seen as another strategic
and carefully planned blow to the audience, a very powerful and sophistic move that
puts his side as the only true virtuous side. England, the land that once oppressed
America and India, has already corrected herself and let the Indians have their liberty
restored. On the Fourth of July, America’s Independence Day, Douglass shows an
instance when England has become better ethically than the American nation.
Every move that Frederick Douglass makes within “What to the Slave is the
Fourth of July?” is meant to force the audience to not only adopt his outlook on
slavery, but to start a change towards complete freedom and equality within the United
States of America. However, one thing stood in Frederick Douglass’ way; the
constraints. Worry, fear, and apprehension of a country torn asunder by a violent
uprising through Civil War kept the emotional feelings that surely grew within the
hearts of every audience member quailed down. The audience, so worried due to the
already rising tension coming from the southern, slave-holding states, most likely
imagined their fathers, brothers, sons, and grandsons being sent off to war. The
thought of any relation dying in a war was enough to mute the full glory of this speech,
rendering Douglass unable to finally fully see an immediate change that he wished for.
Frederick Douglass, as if paying homage to the Greek sophists, aimed to drive
in his side of the rhetorical debate on slavery so powerfully, that it would leave the
opposing side incapable of making a counterargument. His skills as a public speaker
and a writer pay tribute to the wise and learned men that started the height of the
study of rhetoric, with a style that still continues today.

6. Sources Cited:
Douglass, Frederick. "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" The Heath Anthology of
American Literature. Vol. B. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 2102-120. Print.
Early Nineteenth Century.
Herrick, James A. The History and Theory of Rhetoric: an Introduction. 4th ed. Boston:
Allyn and Beacon, 2005. Print.