Florence Kelley's Speech For Child Labor

Throughout this speech, Florence Kelley addresses The Philadelphia Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1905, to bring attention to the working conditions of young children across the nation. Kelley’s rhetorical strategies are, listing examples of the appalling working conditions in a repetitive manner and appealing to ethos and pathos to persuade her audience. Kelley creates a compelling argument that captures the audience and throws them into the issue and then persuading them to join her battle. Kelley forms strong personal and emotional statements that strikes the hearts of the audience. She captures the hearts of the mothers and fathers in the audience and then encourages them to empathize with victims.

Florence Kelley, a member of the women’s reform movement of the early 1900’s, actively fought against child labor. During this time period, women had not yet achieved suffrage, and children of poor families were sent off to work long hours in factories. Many children were barely educated and spent a majority of their lives in quiet obedience at looming machines. On July 22, 1905, Kelley gave a speech on the topic at the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in Philadelphia. On account of this, Kelley’s audience was a group of like-minded individuals who believed in women's suffrage.

A Woman’s National Duty In the early 1900s, industrialists began to utilize child labor as a cheap source of work. However, the conditions these children worked in were both unsanitary and unsafe, creating a group of reformers who wished to see children out of the workforce. Social worker Florence Kelley was among this group and spoke at the National American Women Suffrage Association in 1905. Throughout her speech to encourage women to fight for the vote to prevent atrocities like child labor, Kelley delivers her message to her audience with the use of rhetorical strategies including rhetorical appeals, rhetorical questions, and hortative sentences.

Compared to now, the early 1900s can be seen as an assault to the basic rights we are familiar with in the United States. From the horrid meat standards, to women’s disenfranchisement and child labor, it would take the Progressive Era to end these practices, bringing the United States closer to the one known today. In 1905, more than a decade before women were granted the right to vote, Florence Kelley spoke before the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Speaking on behalf of child and female workers, she passionately opposes the exploitation of children. Using various rhetorical strategies, Kelley crafts an argument on her insight on child labor and her true goal of women’s suffrage.

On July 22, 1905, children’s rights activist, Florence Kelley, addressed the issue of child labor in her speech at the National American Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Throughout the speech, Kelley calls attention to the harsh working conditions and long hours that the working children, especially the young girls, endure in factories and mills. Kelley adopts a passionate tone to emphasize her dedication to the child labor movement and to persuade others to contribute to the movement in order to prevent the oppression that the working children face. Kelley employs repetition to emphasize the long hours that the children work, oxymoron to contrast the opportunities of the children to the conditions of working in mills, and rhetorical questions to point out the actions not being taken by legislatures and voting men. The first rhetorical device Kelley utilizes is the repetition of the phrase “tonight while we sleep” to emphasize the importance of what the rest of society does while the children work (18).

Throughout her speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association on July 22, 1905, Florence Kelley emphasizes the need to modify working conditions for children across the United States. During her speech, the social reformer encourages the women attending the convention in Philadelphia to join her in the fight for labor rights for children. By adopting a stern and persuasive tone, Kelley argues that the exploitation of child labor is a significant issue within the United States. Kelley employs plural pronouns to represent the collective responsibility society has in ending child labor, repetitive phrases to emphasize how widespread the issue is, and rhetorical questions to suggest possible ideas of reform. Most importantly, Kelley utilizes the plural pronoun “we” throughout her speech to establish a sense of unity among the men and women in America and children subject to child labor.

The early 1900s was a time of great strikes over fierce nationalism, social activism, and protest. Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer, spoke out against child labor and the horrible conditions that children were required to bear in order to feed their families. Her speech, delivered before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905, successfully improved conditions for working children. The language Kelley uses in this speech establishes herself as a leader who has the same values and goals as her audience, but also creates a sense of culpability and sympathy from the many mothers and women in the convention in order to gain their support in her cause.

During the 1900’s, it was common for children to be found working long hours in harsh conditions at factories and textile mills. Also, women were in the midst of fighting for their right to vote. However, the advocation of women’s suffrage would not only benefit women but also children as women would be able to ratify better child labor laws. As a reformer and social worker, Kelly was a strong advocate for women earning the right to vote, so they can better protect the young girls influenced by society’s poor child labor laws. Florence Kelley gave a speech at the convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905 about child labor.

In social reformer Florence Kelley’s speech (1905), she argues that the practice of child labor in the U.S is immoral and unacceptable. Kelley effectively builds her argument by using both pathos and rhetorical questions. Using examples from current states that allow child labor (Pennsylvania, Alabama, Georgia, New Jersey), she illuminates the cruelty of child labor in order to encourage women to “enlist the workingmen on behalf of our enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the children” (87-89). Kelley directs this speech to the women with children at the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia. Kelley consistently uses pathos throughout her speech.

In the mid 1800s industry was advancing and children of all ages were working in dangerous factories. People attempted to strike against these rules, while some decided not to. In the book ¨Lyddie¨ by Katherine Paterson, the main character Lyddie has a job in a factory with very poor conditions and long hours. Since this was only the 1800s, child labor laws were not yet established and Lyddie was recently introduced to her idea of rebelling against the rules for more rights.

In America’s history, child labor was fiercely criticized. Many activists of child labor laws and women’s suffrage strived to introduce their own viewpoints to the country. Florence Kelley was a reformer who successfully changed the mindset of many Americans through her powerful and persuading arguments. Florence Kelley’s carefully crafted rhetoric strategies such as pathos, repetition, and sarcasm generates an effective and thought provoking tone that was in favor of women’s suffrage and child labor laws. Florence Kelley uses pathos continuously throughout her speech.

In her speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Florence Kelly descriptively vocalizes about chid labor. She talks about the horrible conditions young children face in the states. Kelly uses repetition to put emphasis on little girls working in textile mills, “while we sleep” is repeated 3 times this makes the audience feel guilty for enjoying life while little girls are working. Kelly also uses pathos, appealing to the emotion of her

On July 22nd, 1905, Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women, delivered a speech on child labor before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia. The purpose of her speech was to convince her audience that the only way to stop child labor was by allowing women the right to vote. Florence Kelley uses certain rhetorical strategies, such as pathos, diction, and an extensive use of figurative language, to appeal to her audience and accomplish her goal. Kelley’s speech is composed of a substantial amount of emotional appeals to aid her in connecting with her intended audience. In paragraph four she says, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.”

In conclusion, Florence Kelley used many rhetorical strategies in order to call her audience to arms against child labor laws. She accuses the laws of being unjust and labels the children prisoners. In the last two paragraphs, Kelley refers to her cause as the "freeing of the children." She believed the children were robbed of their basic rights and freedoms by labor laws and used strategies such as pathos, parallelism, and illustration to convince her audience to help her "free

Children from as young as the age of 6 began working in factories, the beginning of their exploitation, to meet demands of items and financial need for families. In Florence Kelley’s speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia 1905, Kelley addresses the overwhelming problem of child labor in the United States. The imagery, appeal to logic, and the diction Kelley uses in her speech emphasizes the exploitation of children in the child labor crisis in twentieth century America. Kelley’s use of imagery assists her audience in visualizing the inhumanity of the practice.