A study explored rhetorical strategies and dynamics within a single speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, l852 in Rochester, New York, which was considered by speaker and audience to be an Independence Day speech. An examination of the text suggests that Douglass embarked on a strategy of attention-shifting--turning the attention of the audience from an issue or belief to ideas that subsume the original issue. In an elaborate introductory section, Douglass shifted the attention of his audience from national celebration (on July 4th) to national mourning for Negro slavery. He then focused closely on the condition of the slaves at the time, and having established that, Douglass shifted attention from slavery as a regional problem to a national shame. Throughout these attention-shifts Douglass wove a thread of principle which united the entire message: the principle of true liberty. The attention-shift that provides insights into the inner workings of this particular discourse could become a paradigm of what is possible in a discourse, serving as an exemplary case which functions as a standard of evaluation, allowing the critic to see what a discourse can and ought to do and serving to judge other similar discourses. (NH)