Category: Rhetoric & Devices
The Farewell Address: George Washington’s Most Quoted Document
George Washington never delivered his Farewell Address as a speech. Published in newspapers in September 1796, it was a written letter to the American people, intended to explain…
Chiasmus: The Rhetorical Device That Makes Quotes Impossible to Forget
Some quotations lodge in memory because of their content. Others stick because of their shape. Chiasmus — a rhetorical figure in which words or ideas are repeated in…
Sojourner Truth’s ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’: The Speech, Its Two Versions, and What They Tell Us
Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York around 1797. She was freed in 1826, sued successfully for the freedom of her son, and spent the rest…
The Rhetoric of Inaugural Addresses: FDR, JFK, and Lincoln’s Most Quoted Moments
Inaugural addresses occupy a special place in the history of American political rhetoric. They are delivered at a precise moment — the transfer of power — and must…
Cicero and Roman Oratory: Quotes That Shaped Western Rhetoric
Cicero is one of the most quoted figures in Western history, and one of the least read. His speeches, letters, and philosophical treatises shaped how Latin was written…
Langston Hughes: Blues Form, Deferred Dreams, and the Rhetoric of Vernacular Poetry
Langston Hughes was twenty-three years old when he published “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” in 1921. He was twenty-six when his first book appeared. By the time the…
Frederick Douglass: Rhetoric, Literacy, and the Documented Words
Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 and spent the next five decades writing and speaking with a precision that cut through the rhetoric of his era. His words…