Audience

Emmeline Pankhurst delivered her speech “Freedom or Death” in front of a crowd of men and women in Hartford, Connecticut while on tour in the US, trying to raise funds for her women’s suffrage organisation in Britain.

The speech was delivered at a meeting organised by Connecticut Women's Suffrage Association, who was then led by Katherine Houghton Hepburn.

She begins her speech by addressing American suffragists (supporters of women’s voting rights) in general, suggesting she expects her speech to have a nation-wide impact: “…I am not here to advocate woman suffrage. American suffragists can do that very well for themselves.” (p. 91, ll. 5-6)

As the speech progresses, the speaker talks about women as voting rights activists, suggesting that they are an important segment of the audience for her: “We women, in trying to make our case clear, always have to make as part of our argument, and urge upon men in our audience the fact - a very simple fact - that women are human beings.” (p. 91, ll. 27-29)

However, several parts of her speech are directed towards ...