Florence Kelley’s Speech Regarding Child Labor Laws: a Literary Analysis

Florence Kelley fought very hard for the child labor laws. Her speech moved people and persuaded people on her idea of Child Labor laws. She was very successful by her use of people’s feelings towards young and helpless children and rhetorical questions to get the audience to think for themselves in this situation.

Kelley mentions many times during her speech the ages of the children and shows off how young they are and how they stay up late at night, which appeals to the mothers and fathers of this audience. They love their children and would not wish that on them because they love them. In the speech she tugs on heart strings by saying, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills.” This makes people feel bad for wanting young children to work harder than them while they are sleeping in bed happily. The use of this strategy appeals to the audience’s sympathy. By using it, the people would want to help the children out of working so hard at night in a dangerous place.

Kelley also uses rhetorical questions that make the audience reflect on the matter instead of her just telling them what to think. By asking, “Would the New Jersey Legislature have passed that shameful repeal bill enabling girls of fourteen years to work all night, if the mothers in New Jersey were enfranchised?” This makes people think about the problem of Child Labor and how it started. Kelley gives the audience a chance to think about it for themselves and slowly come to the same verdict that she is at. Child Labor should be stopped.

Kelly was a passionate speaker who did anything she could to stop Child Labor. Her speech at the convention was very successful because of her use of pathos and the rhetorical questions she asked. She was a very powerful speaker who ultimately helped change the Child Labor laws for good.