Directions
You will complete several “guided rhetorical critiques” throughout the semester. Each of them will feature a shared rhetorical artifact that we focus on for an entire module. For this module, your critique will focus on Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” For this critique, you should do the following:
(1) Describe the historical context, specific setting, particular mode (platform oratory), and audience(s) for this speech. Please use the readings and other materials made available in this module to accomplish this task (especially Blight’s chapter);
(2) Identify and describe at least one major rhetorical feature of Douglass’ speech that you found to be most important in uncovering its central meaning and impact as an overall performance;
(3) Make an argument suggesting why you feel the feature noted in #2 is so important and how it reveals meaning or enhances our understanding about Douglass’ speech and its relevance to the contemporary world;
(4) Discuss areas of agreement and disagreement you have with the example rhetorical criticisms we read in this module by Terrill and Wilson.
