Florence Kelley Child Labor Speech Analysis

Speaking at a suffrage convention, social worker Florence Kelley calls upon her audience to combine child labor and women’s suffrage issues in order to make advances in both areas. Basing her argument on factual evidence, Kelley further uses emotional and ethical appeal, supported by strong diction and subtle syntax structures t convey the necessity of reform to her audience. Florence Kelley provides a great point with a weak argument in her speech. Her writing is almost mere state by state statistics with no real examples or push to her words. Florence Kelley, a US social worker and reformer, gave a speech before the convention of the NAWSA in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905 Kelley uses dismal imagery, accusatory diction, and pointed repetition to call the audience to action. Working women and children fought for equal rights throughout most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ironically, women and children were the ones subject to heinous, unimaginable working conditions from an early age. Reformers, such as Florence Kelley, campaigned for equal conditions for all people in the workplace. While her crusade obtained the support of many, the opposition to equal conditions was immense and difficult to overcome. Speeches became a tool used to really support for the common cause, especially among women. Kelley’s speech at the national American Woman Suffrage Association’s convention appeals to the sentiments of the listeners and utilizes emotional examples in order to elicit a positive, as well as revolutionary , response from the listeners. In this speech by Florence Kelley, she utilizes emotional appeal, personal connections through the use of first person point of view, and repetition in order to affect change in her country’s policies about child labor and women suffrage. She uses these techniques to rally strong support for child labor restrictions and enfranchisement of women. Wow! This speech was seriously really nice. I am so glad to write about it and not some convoluted clueless Henry James passage. :) In 1905, many children were forced to work long hours in order to help their family survive. In opposition to the lack of child labor laws, Florence Kelley spoke at the National Woman Suffrage Association’s convention. To convey her message and gain support, Kelley uses emotional diction and emotional appeal. In her speech demanding child labor laws, Florence Kelley expresses her outright disgust with the conditions in which poor, innocent children must work, utilizing imagery, emotion, and traditional societal roles. In Florence Kelley’s speech she discusses the pain of child labor. Kelley uses parallelism, tone, and emotional appeal to support her position against child labor.

Child labor laws have always been an extremely emotional topic, with people holding various beliefs about what is deemed acceptable. Florence Kelley, a US social worker and reformer, was very adamant in her beliefs about the wrongdoings of child labor. Her speech before the convention of the NAWSA in Philadelphia was extremely effective and accurately revealed her views to the audience. Kelley uses emotional appeal, a cataloging of laws and scenarios where states purposely defied the laws, and rhetorical questions to convey her message about child labor to the audience. Florence Kelley was a United States social worker who fought successfully for child labor laws. In a speech she delivered on July 22, 1905 in Philadelphia, she used rhetorical strategies such as comparing and contrasting, sentimental facts, and argument to give us many details on the types of child labor that was going around and about in the 1900’s. Throughout her piece, Kelley makes a sound and compelling argument against the conditions faced by many children in the South. Kelley strengthens her argument by employing effective use of imagery, syntax, and diction. In the late 19th century to early 20th century, social workers and reformers everywhere waged wars against the government, hoping for child labor laws to be passed. One such reformer, Florence Kelley, appeals emotionally in her call for help through the use of shocking statistics, poignant imagery, and compelling diction. Florence Kelley delivered a speech before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905. Kelley conveys her message about child labor laws to her audience. Kelley believes the child labor laws are unjust and need to be changed. In Florence Kelley’s speech to a woman’s suffrage convention, she must convince women to lobby for new laws improving the work conditions and work hours for children. Kelley’s persuasive and demanding tone is amplified by her use of repetition, rhetorical questions, periodic sentences, motifs, and appeals to pathos. With the emergence of labor movements and the populist party in the later half of the 19th century, the working class became increasingly conscious of the plight of working children. Advocacy for limits on age and labor hours strengthened also as more and more women convened to lobby for enfranchisement. One of them, Florence Kelley, delivered a speech at the convention of the NAWSA in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905, in which she called for action towards the injustice of child labor by exposing the harsh realities of the oppressive institution. By utilizing the traditional rhetorical strategies of ethos, logos, and pathos, Florence Kelley successfully conveyed her message to her audience. In her speech about child labor, given on July 22, 1905 in Philadelphia, Florence Kelley used several rhetorical devices to convey her message in the best way possible. Her speech was given before the convention at the NAWSA. Florence Kelley sought to convey the harsh conditions children in the workforce endured in her July 22, 1905 speech and call the public to action because of these conditions. Her speech employs rhetorical strategies to create a pathetic image of suffering among working children before calling the public to respond. Kelley uses figurative language, description, repetition, and rhetorical questions to create an emotional and moral appeal and call to action. In her 1905 speech to the NAWSA in Philadelphia, social reformer Florence Kelley successfully implemented rhetorical strategies to convey her plea against child labor to the audience. In her speech, Kelley uses imagery, the ad hominem argument, and rhetorical questions to strengthen her argument against child labor. The early 1900’s was a time in America that witnessed a significant amount of reform and dedication to social causes. Child labor and working conditions were just one cause among many as both local and federal leaders struggled to overcome the mistrust and corruption that lingered from the Gilded Age. Nevertheless, both child labor laws and women’s suffrage were issues that figured prominently as women and children became increasing forces in the workplace. Both groups experienced horrifying working conditions and health hazards that wouldn’t be dealt with for years to come. In her appeal to the women suffragists, Florence Kelley relied upon an emotional appeal to them as fellow women and mothers and her ability to intertwine their two interests to garner their support. Florence Kelley really gets her point across about child labor in her speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association. To convey her point of child labor being shamefully robbing, Kelley used pathos to see the wrong in child labor emotionally. She also uses rhetorical questions and anaphora to get this message across to the NAWSA. Pathos being the most evident. In American History, both women and factory workers have been marginalized and disenfranchised. To be a female factory worker was to be doubly condemned with the curse of what was seen as the inferior sex and inferior profession. Social worker and reformer Florence Kelley, however, fought for the improved livelihoods for working women and children. She countered their exploitation by using their abject situations to recruit other women to her great cause, gathering support for Women’s Suffrage. Kelley passionately uses her rhetorical techniques such as parallelism, tone, and pathos to convince her audience of women to fight for enfranchisement. In her speech in which she conveys her message about child labor, Florence Kelley successfully captures the minds and hearts of her audience. Because her audience is the NAWSA, Kelley must devise a speech that appeals to such a specific group of listeners. In order to declare her strong feelings concerning the terrible practice of child labor, Kelley fills her speech with pathos, hypothetical situations, parallelism, and an abundance of facts and examples.