Frederick Douglass: Oratory from Slavery

Tracing the development of Frederick Douglass's rhetorical skills, this book discusses the effect of his oratory upon his era, and analyzes the specific oratorical techniques he employed.

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Chesebrough (history, Illinois State U.) sketches the important events and oratorical experiences in Douglass' life. He discusses the rhetorical techniques the great speaker employed, and particularly those techniques that relate to ethos, pathos, an d parallelism. He provides a chronology of selected speeches, and extensive passages from three speeches: "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" (1852), "Negroes and the National War Effort" (1863), and "The Lessons of the Hour" (1984). Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

DAVID B. CHESEBROUGH is Assistant Chair, Graduate Faculty, Department of History at Illinois State University.