"Questions for Thought"

1. Compare Garrison's use of the chain metaphor (paragraph 2) to the "chains of ignorance" metaphor in Stewart's "The Negro's Complaint." To what audiences did each of the authors direct these works? Why would the chain metaphor be particularly effective for the individual audiences for whom the authors wrote?

2. For what reason does Douglass attempt to detach himself from the black race in his "Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage"? What ties does Douglass make between himelf and his audience and for what reasons does he do this? What is his tone?

3. Compare the techniques of the three abolitionists. In what ways do they use their own sex and race to either relate or detach themselves from their audiences.

4. Using the rhetoric in each work, what are their respective audiences? How do the author's techiques differ between audiences? Pick two works ad compare and contrast the author's execution of each.

5. In what ways does Maria W. Stewart's poem seem somewhat more universally directed than her speech? In what ways is her speech focused on men rather than women? Would you imagine her sex have any impact on the reception of the speech?

6. Find similarities in the language and rhetorical devises apparent in each of the writings.


William Lloyd Garrison

Fredrick Douglass

Maria W. Stewart

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Email me your thoughts on the website to arooney@bowdoin.edu.