Ganaa Balgan
Mrs. Kallay
AP language
11 November 2009
Alfred M. Green’s speech analysis essay
In the American civil war, the southern states of America, also known as the Confederacy fought against the northern states of America (the Union). The Republican President Abraham Lincoln campaigned against the expansion of slavery beyond the states in which it already existed. This act and several others created a tension between the North (the Union) and the South (the Confederacy), resulting in a civil war. The civil war lasted from 1861 through 1865, ending with a Union victory. The free African Americans in the north were not allowed to enlist and join the army at that time, but Alfred M. Green thought that they should be able to fight for their freedom and for the freedom of their fellow African Americans. With confident diction and a righteous tone Green persuades his fellow African Americans to enlist in the Union army by listing the positive outcomes their participation could bring to the war through an ethical and emotional appeal.
Green begins by announcing that it is time for African Americans to stand and fight for their freedom, pride, and for the freedom of the friends and family in the South. He declares that it is the time to show the world “the freedom and patriotism of a race in whose hearts burns the love of country, of freedom, and of civil and religious toleration”. Through the righteous diction Green is able to inspire them because he shows them that their righteous race needs to fight back. By praising their race as a whole he calls upon them to protect that freedom and patriotism. Green stresses the urgency of the situation by explaining that “our duty, brethren, is no to cavil over past grievances, let us not be derelict to duty in the time of need”. Green explains that they will earn the respect of the whites by fighting alongside them to erase any hesitation caused by the fear of disapproval by the whites. He tells the African...