During the beginnings of the Civil War, Northerners were debating allowing African Americans to serve in the military. Because of one brave general by the name of Toussaint-Louverture. Louverture was a former Haitian slave that helped liberate other enslaved Haitians. Louverture was most remembered as the most powerful leader in Haiti. Wendell Phillips a white American abolitionist; celebrates the great Haitian general Louverture with his speech written in 1861. Wendell Phillips uses historical allusion to contrast General Louverture which establishes praise to his subject. Phillips also uses historical allusion and parallel structure in order to move his audience during his speech.
Phillips cogent historical allusion to emphasize his idea that general Louverture should be recognized as much as Washington or Cromwell for his accomplishments. The success of three great leaders such as Washington, Cromwell and General Haitian should not be looked upon their appearance but for their leadership. An example was when Phillip stated that “We measure genius by quality, not by quantity” therefore, saying that despite Cromwell being a general that lead a large continent, Louverture was equally as successful even though he only lead a smaller territory. …show more content…
He states that Louverture “…forged a thunderbolt and hurled it at what? At the proudest blood in Europe, the Spaniard, and sent him home conquered; at the most warlike blood in Europe, the French, and put them under his feet; at the pluckiest blood in Europe, the English, and they skulled home to Jamaica” Phillips engages parallel structure to emphasize how the General Louverture became a successful powerful leader even after engaging with three great European powers. The way the sentence structure is set up is to show Louvetures challenges and how he overcame each one after the other successfully to battle