Slavery has been one of the most significant and influential policies in the United States of America. People contemporarily see this as one of the nation’s greatest mistakes, feeling shame for what many people consider to be a grand mistake. Nevertheless, people often do not remember that almost half of the country supported this practice even when the other half had systematically decried and outlawed it. A great thinker by the name of Angelina E. Grimke was one of the most important fighters against this barbaric situation, with her speeches being cornerstones of the emancipation movement. In them, she used various literary devices in order to convince her audience to aid in the abolishment of slavery. Particularly, in “Appeal to the Christian Women of the South”, Grimke employs Biblical allusion and hyperbole to play to the mindset and emotions of her audience in order for them to take action with respect to this horrendous, yet legal, debasement of human nature.
In this speech, Grimke attempts to have people come to action through the use of references to the Bible. The main reason for this is that she knows that most of her audience will know these great references, coming from the very religious American South. She constantly makes reference to God in different ways, using Him as an authority. In His name, she not only declares slavery to be sinful and against nature, but implores her listeners to do His will and disseminate this information among other Southeners. She believes that the Scripture holds the key to convincing these people that slavery is something wrong and that one should fight against it. “The Bible then is the book I want you to read in the spirit of inquiry, and the spirit of prayer” (Grimke 799). By reading the Bible in an active manner, she believes that people will realize that slavery is wrong.
As well as referencing the Bible in general, Grimke also places specific allusions to the content of the Scripture. She speaks of Joseph and his brothers, Divine judgment and how establishing the United States of America was akin to the Jewish Exodus led by Moses. Furthermore, he uses the religious notion of enduring sacrifice in order to be better and new. In one paragraph she even quotes the Bible three times, both in terms of compassion and in faith towards God. Furthermore, she speaks of slavery in terms of sin, an obvious biblical allusion of a particularly Christian variety. She even beckons her listener to spread the word of their enlightening with respect to the horror that slavery represents, putting the audience in the role of apostles. Speaking of slavery, she implores her listeners to “be not afraid if you are conscientiously convinced it is sinful, to say so openly, but calmly, and to let your sentiments be known” (Grimke 799). In addition, she conceives slavery as being a criminal action, not only against humanity, but offending God Himself.
Hyperbole is another literary device that the author constantly uses in order to augment the emotional impact that her argument has on her audience. Even though she may be right in some points, she exaggerates them in order to make them seem more important than they otherwise would be. For example, Grimke says that “it is unreasonable and cruel to expect slaves to wait for their breakfast until eleven o’clock, when they rise at five or six” (800). While this is obviously true, as the human organism has set times for its metabolic processes, she pronounces it in such a way that one would think that it were always a life or death manner. This use of hyperbole sought to establish people that held slave as the absolute incarnation of evil, when perhaps they were just ignorant.
Furthermore, there are passages where she deliberately employs flowery language in order to make her point more appealing. For example, instead of saying that one should pray for slaves to be free, she states it in a more adorned manner. “Pray also for that poor slave, that he may be kept patient and submissive under his hard lot, until God is pleased to open the door of freedom to him without violence or bloodshed” (Grimke 799). Even though these were obviously violent possibilities that could result from slaves being freed, she emphasizes this, making it sound like an apocalyptic scene.
Works Cited
Grimke, Angelina E. (1836). “From Appeal to the Christian Women of the South”. Slavery, Race and the Making of American Literature. 798-801. PDF.
