In 1911, a black man was tortured to death in the public eye of the people of Coatesville, Pennsylvania. The news of the murder swept the nation and soon the man’s death was known by virtually everyone in the nation. As the first anniversary approached, John Jay Chapman felt a moral obligation to travel to Coatesville and deliver a speech to convey how it is on the whole nation’s shoulders. He does this through his use of logical statements and emotional diction.
For his audience to understand that the lynching was everyone’s problem, Chapman made a series of logical statements. His inclusion of logical statements allows the audience to understand his point of view while facilitating the establishment of his ethos. He makes the argument that,“A nation cannot practice a course of inhuman crime for three hundred years and then suddenly throw off the effects of it.” The vastness of 300 years of slavery makes it understandable that its effects cannot be eliminated in a matter of a few years. In combination with the fact that the whole nation knew of tragedy allowed the audience to see how it was on the whole nation’s shoulders. Slavery was a national atrocity that the nation had to overcome as a whole; its effects affect and affected everyone in the nation. Throughout the speech, Chapman uses words such as “guilt” and “cruel” to emphasize the horrid nature of the tragedy. He indicates that the whole nation should feel remorseful for what has happened, reinforcing the idea that the tragedy is everyone’s responsibility.
Chapman’s logical statements drove home his argument that the tragic lynching of a black man in Coatesville was on the shoulders of everyone in the country, and the just the bystanders who watched. Even today, while the effects of slavery have waned, we as an American people need to work together to completely eliminate them.
No comments:
Post a Comment