Essay: Richard Allen “To those who keep slaves and approve the practice,” 1794

The plight for righteousness has been long endured and fought for among those who are oppressed in America. Richard Allen, once an influential Black leader in America, delivered his speech, “To those who keep slaves and approve the practice,” in 1794, as a means to enlighten slave owners about the true competency of black people. Richard Allen’s address to oppressors was potent in further advocating for slaves and combatting slavery, both of which he focused on for the majority of his career (McMickle 2002). Allen impacted the lives of Americans with this address by referencing God and scriptures from the Bible, which also opposed tyranny, using emotion as a tactic to engage his audience and maintaining an irrefutable respect between himself and his audience. Allen effectively highlighted these topics in his speech by incorporating righteous common ground, dignified authority, witty parallelism, and eloquent diction into his address.
Allen utilized both authority and common ground when speaking of God and Jesus. He stated “That God who knows the hearts of all men, and the propensity of a slave to hate his oppressor, hath strictly forbidden it to his chosen people, “Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land.” Allen used this verse from the Bible to increase the credibility of his argument, which is that Black people are entitled to basic human rights. This was intelligent to do because no religious person during this era was going to openly disagree with the word of God (Clark). The authority figure in this line of the speech was God and it created a common ground because the audience could identify with Richard due to their shared religious beliefs and values. In addition to using Bible scriptures to engage his audience, Allen spoke of Jesus, “The meek and humble Jesus, the great pattern of humanity, and every other virtue that can adorn and dignify men, hath condemned to love our enemies, to do good to them that hate and despitefully use us.” (Allen). He stated this as a means to set Jesus as the prime example of how to behave and address one another. Allen purposefully created a common ground between himself and his oppressors that they could not ignore without devaluing their own faith in God.
Several aspects of this speech were clearly in place to induce shame in oppressors and to persuasively guide them into realizing just how immoral their actions were. Allen used parallelism to get this point across, “If you love your children, if you love your country, if you love the God of love, clear your hands from slaves, burthen not your children or your country with them, my heart has been sorry for the blood shed of the oppressors, as well as the oppressed, both appear guilty of each other’s blood, in the sight of him who hath said, he that sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” (Allen). He is asking for peace and this may have instilled a sense of peace within his audience because he is referring to the things the love repeatedly. Allen brings together love and blood, two things that are closely related to happiness or pain and angst. This instance of parallelism and the way he chose to use it conveys the strong emotions in what he is saying and how the audience interprets his message of peace.
Throughout the speech, Richard Allen maintains a respectable and impassioned tone. This was first depicted in the first paragraph of his speech, “…yet you try what you can to prevent our rising from a state of barbarism you represent us to be in, but we can tell you from a degree of experience that a black man, although reduced to the most abject state human nature is capable of, short of real madness, can think, reflect, and feel injuries, although it may not be with the same degree of keen resentment and revenge that you who have been and are our great oppressors would manifest if reduced to the pitiable condition of a slave.” (Allen). His diction enabled him to make his argument stronger. The comparisons he made between slave and slave owner in that excerpt truly showed the severity of the unjust treatment and prejudice against the Black man. His choice to illustrate how a slave owner would act should he find himself in the same position as a slave was exemplary in how his goal with this speech was to showcase just how unethical slavery was. Another way he generated an emotional impact with his diction was when he said, “I do not wish to make you angry, but excite attention to consider how hateful slavery is in the sight of that God who hath destroyed kings and princes for their oppression of the poor slaves.” Although it is obvious that he is opposed to the actions of the people he is addressing, Allen sounds professional and makes it clear that he is not there to offend them. His diction is what allowed his message to reach the audience. Had he not been cautionary in keeping his composure and speaking eloquently, the audience would not have taken heed of his plea for equality.
The points that were brought up by Richard Allen in this address were instrumental in effectively bringing to light the systemic stigmatizing of Black people and Black slaves. He repeatedly brought up fact rather than biased opinion, which further validated his argument. It brought into question, how faithful to God were those who participated in the enslaving of human beings? Some would say not faithful at all. Richard Allen’s words served to inspire not only everyday members of American society, but even significant figures in Black history like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who undoubtedly understood the need for equality for all oppressed peoples (Wildmon).