Wells-Barnett's Exigence and Rhetoric of Forward Motion

I believe that Wells-Barnett’s exigence in “Lynch Law in America” is one of promoting social consciousness among Americans.   In her work, she brings to mind the last lines of our country’s national anthem, ‘for the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”   She then goes onto say, “Brave men do not gather by thousands to torture and murder a single individual. . . Neither do brave men or women stand by and see such things done without compunction or conscience, nor read of them without protest” (Wells-Barnett, 3).   While there are obvious underlying tones in her work that prod at the inequality between races and the desire for civility between blacks and whites, I think that Wells-Barnett was striving to achieve something different.

 

Her writing attempts to emphasize not the overall suffering of African Americans due to lynching and “unwritten law,” but rather the irrationality of the human race to allow something like this to happen; especially, the irony  of white Americans claiming to be brave, whilst simultaneously promoting this “unwritten law.”  The most prominent of Killingsworth’s appeals to time that is demonstrated in Wells-Barnett’s piece is definitely the rhetoric of forward motion.  An example of this appeal to forward motion occurs at the end of the piece when Wells-Barnett claims that, “. . . until Americans of every section, of broadest patriotism and best and wisest citizenship, not only see the defect in our country’s armor, but take the necessary steps to remedy it” (Wells-Barnett, 4).   This is a clear appeal toward improving the situation in America and almost a plea by Wells-Barnett for citizens to use their conscience in coming to the realization of her plea.