The Rhetoric of Henry Highland Garnet in his “Address to the Slaves of the United States” Henry Highland Garnet exerted powerful rhetorical schemes to the abolishment and Civil Rights Movements during the 19th century. His religious and loyal entreaties complimented strict and sometimes conflicting rules as seen in his “An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America. ” The capturing rhetoric of Garnet and his ability to organize new options and redefine elements of contention signifies the rhetoric of discord. advancing African American trueness and stressing the bravery of African American males. Garnet was a dynamic elocutionist. enabling him to emotionally appeal to his audience and contribute to important historical and political constructs. One can besides appreciate how rhetoric can impact the antiquity of beliefs and promote societal and political alteration with Garnet’s argumentative techniques as an illustration. Garnet believed emancipationists should partake in any activity possible if it enhanced the potency to liberate enslaved inkinesss. Abolition was a righteous exigent which is reflected throughout the address.
The aggressive manner in Garnet’s reference is what historically signifies his address. It was non until 1843 that Garnet’s rhetoric obviously advocated angered resistance to bondage. He begins by giving his recount on the current province of bondage “Slavery has fixed a deep gulf between you and us. and while it shuts out from you the alleviation and solace which your friends would volitionally render. it afflicts and persecutes you ( … ) ” ( Garnet 347 ) . Garnet begins his address by bodying bondage and clearly puting bondage as the enemy. In making so. Garnet captured the entireness of what bondage encompassed: force. grief and the want of autonomies and loved 1s. Therefore. he arouses the emancipationists and enslaved peoples he was aiming by clearly painting an immorality that must be defeated. This besides enables Garnet to impute many barbarous features to slavery.
These ascribed features utilized through personification conveys what bondage is exactly making to the people stripped of their freedom— clear uping this for his intended audiences. He goes onto ardently challenge the slaves to “Let your slogan be opposition! ( … ) No laden people have of all time secured their autonomy without opposition ( … ) What sort of opposition you had better brand you must make up one’s mind by the fortunes that surround you? ( Garnet 352 ) . Albeit Garnet’s impressive rhetorical accomplishments are successful in eliciting the slaves. Garnet’s ethical entreaty is missing because he was a freed slave from Maryland. New York. This makes it apparently hard for him to understand the establishment of bondage in the South. Another facet discrediting his request is Garnet’s unfavorable judgment of slaves who do non arise when he is watching from afar. non consisting his ain life nor willing to take the hazards he is inquiring of his audience. therefore. doing his statement seem hypocritical.
Although. some contradictions appear in Garnet’s reference. he began to spread out his message at this clip to foreground the repression against the enslaved peoples of the South enduring under the ferociousness of their Masterss and his proof for a rebellion. He appealed. “Go to your august enslavers and state them obviously you are determined to be free ( … ) Entreat them to take you from the dangerous loads which they have imposed upon you” ( Garnet 350 ) . Garnet was sympathetic and understood the deepness of the loss of lives. pride and the pure indurate Acts of the Apostless enforced upon the people from his native state. Expressive and powerful visual images like these are characteristic of the rhetoric of Garnet. For case. when he discusses the church’s function in the establishment of bondage. “The shed blooding confined plead his artlessness. and pointed to Christianity crying at the cross ( … ) But all was vain. Slavery had stretched its dark wings over the land. the church stood mutely by…” ( Garnet 347 ) . It is clear how Garnet feels about the churches’ deficiency of support for liberating slaves. However. alternatively of merely saying it. he utilizes an drawn-out metaphor. personification and dark imagination to capture the evils bondage will widen to all. Appealing to his audiences’ ( fellow emancipationists ) poignancy is critical in his cause to name for a revolution to free slaves in order to uncover the domineeringness of the state of affairs and let the audience to sympathize more so with slaves staying in the South.
Fostering his intent. Garnet’s ability to build new options and readdress elements of struggle is delineated by stressing the strength of African American males. He proposes. “Fellowmen! Patient sick persons! Behold your dearest rights crushed to the Earth! See your boies murdered. and your married womans ( … ) allow it no longer be a problematic inquiry. whether it is better to take autonomy or death” ( Garnet 350 ) . Garnet asks the work forces if it is deserving standing by. watching your household endure such ferociousnesss or decease for their freedom. Offering an alternate and redefining the ground behind his proposal is critical to the intended intent of the message—the clarity of the averment. the logic of its motivations and the consequence of its grounds. The clout of Son on an audience is imperative when seeking to acquire the audience to fall in a cause.
Henry Highland Garnet’s “Address to the Slaves of the United States” is acknowledged for the impact it has had historically due to the amazing rhetoric articulated in the piece. The argument’s logical entreaty is executed by staying focused on the consistence of the message. doing his statement clear. and offering an alternate followed by the effectivity. The argument’s ethical entreaty is missing due to Garnet’s deficiency of cognition sing captivity in the South. His inability to sympathize every bit good as comprehend the hazards he is inquiring of the slaves is questionable. Garnet’s emotional entreaty is rather luring. His entreaty to the audiences’ poignancy causes the audience non merely to react emotionally but experience compassion for his cause. Garnet’s rhetoric evokes such pathos that it enables his audience to experience understandings and hurting hypothetically. Garnet’s values and considerations are inexplicit in the piece and conveyed inventively to the audience. The use of motivational entreaties. powerful expressive linguistic communication and abundant sensory inside informations provided Garnet the ability to truly impact his audience. This consequence would subsequently be a solution to the immoralities of bondage as a consequence of Garnet’s and fellow abolitionists’ attempts.
