Soujerner Truth Rhetorical Analysis

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Sojourner Truth's Ain't I a Woman speech was given by Sojourner Truth in the year of 1851. It was given at the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. Sojourner Truth gave her speech to address her views on women's rights and to advocate equal rights of men and women everywhere. Specifically the rights of African American women Truth accomplished this by utilizing the rhetorical devices of... pathos, logos, ethos, allusion, juxtaposition, anaphora, and pinpointing the enemy. Truth uses her upbringing as a slave in her speech by... Using slang and informal word such as... "Honey." It helped the African American audience members who were also connected with slavery feel a link with Truth. Pathos As a slave, Truth bore many children with another slave. “I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me!” This segment of the speech connects with all of the mothers in the audience. It allows them to connect on a deep emotional level with not only the African American mothers but the white mothers as well. This joining of white and black together makes her speech appeal to a greater audience. Logos “Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman?” This section of the speech appeals to the men in the audience. It compares what the average white American man does and what the average African American woman does. The similarities between the two enforce the idea that women in America are just as worthy of respect and deserve to have the same rights as men. Ethos “If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours hold a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?” or in simpler terms... If the men have so much power already, could they not let women have this one little thing,
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