Classical, Formal

As we noted in "Structure," this speech is an example of classical oratory, which means the language is formal and the sentences are long. There are a lot of rhetorical questions meant to get the audience thinking, and there are quite a few allusions to other texts listeners are expected to recognize.

Check out the following for an example of all of these elements:

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart." (5-11)

We chose that paragraph, but you could pull out almost any paragraph in the speech and see characteristics of classical oratory. We'll say this: Douglass is consistent throughout.