You have already declared it. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. In this respect, Douglass's views converged with that of Abraham Lincoln's[25] in that those politicians who were saying that the Constitution was a justification for their beliefs in regard to slavery were doing so dishonestly. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? One of the parts of the speech that resonates with me the most is when Douglass says: What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. You profess to believe that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth, and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. [26] After the Civil War, Douglass said that "we" had achieved a great thing by gaining American independence during the American Revolutionary War, though he said it was not as great as what was achieved by the Civil War. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. by Frederick Douglass 1852 11th Grade Lexile: 1140 Font Size Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an African American social reformer, orator, and writer. It is not that pure and undefiled religion which is from above, and which is first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains, stay there; and to the oppressor, oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Douglass was a powerful orator, often traveling six months out of the year to give lectures on abolition. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. We need individual events like reading Douglass, but we also need to be thinking about ways to extend this conversation over the long term. Douglass builds his argument by using surprising contrasts, plain facts, and provocative antithesis. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour.Fellow-citizens! The British accomplished this through religion or more specifically, the church. ROY:One of the things that Douglass writings shows us is that he believed in amplifying a variety of voices. It is neither. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. "Meaning of the Fourth of July to a Negro" by Bridget Durham The Fourth of July is a day of celebration for many Americans because on July 4th, 1776, America declared independence from Britain and said that everyone was free under the US government, right? He thinks they were extremely intelligent, and the thinks it is admirable that when they realized they were oppressed by Britain, they rebelled. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. sanction. A John Knox would be seen at every church door, and heard from every pulpit, and Fillmore would have no more quarter than was shown by Knox, to the beautiful, but treacherous queen Mary of Scotland. Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. To honor Black History Month, as an introduction or review of rhetorical appeals and devices, or as a speech exemplar, this Frederick Douglass "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" rhetoric activity is a fabulous addition to any lesson. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. On the 2d of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. In a Fourth of July holiday special, we hear the words of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass, ca 1855, Metropolitan Museum of Art. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. However, if slavery were abolished and equal rights given to all, that would no longer be the case. They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny, and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke, put together, have done! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. [19]. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? Summary of Part 1:In part one of the speech "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July", Fredrick Douglass. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority of Him by whom the professed to he called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teach that we ought to obey mans law before the law of God.My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; and how such men can be supported, as the standing types and representatives of Jesus Christ, is a mystery which I leave others to penetrate. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles. As the sheet anchor takes a firmer hold, when the ship is tossed by the storm, so did the cause of your fathers grow stronger, as it breasted the chilling blasts of kingly displeasure. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation a religion, a church, and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" remains one of the most effective and poignant condemnations of slavery in the canon of American abolitionist literature, a tribute to the moral character and oratorical skills of Frederick Douglass. [13] Although the import of people directly from Africa had been banned in 1807,[14] the domestic slave trade, still legal, was thriving. had I the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? The United States does not have to stay the way it is. I am not that man. The speech notes the contradiction of the national ethos of United States and the way enslaved persons are treated. This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. Students also viewed The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. What is now known as the "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. He is outraged by the lack of responsibility and indifference towards slavery that many sects have taken around the nation. Douglass details the hardships past Americans once endured when they were members of British colonies and validates their feelings of ill treatment. Products. The Act also denied suspected slaves trial by jury or even the ability to testify on their own behalf in court. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. During the 1850's, the Fourth of July served as a reminder of the many horrors and injustices in the world. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. To the slave, Douglass tells the audience, "your 4th of July is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license [for enslaving blacks] . Let this damning fact be perpetually told. He took action to raise the voices of others and to aid their work on the national stage, especially that of two Black women in the last half of the 19th century. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? "[1][2] was a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. we wept when we remembered Zion. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. [9][10] He had previously lived in Boston, but did not want his newspaper to interfere with sales of The Liberator, published by William Lloyd Garrison. Youll never experience a black hole, but Avi Loeb can help you imagine one, We need individual events like reading Douglass, but we also need to be thinking about ways to extend this conversation over the long term., Level of cannabis use could determine post-op outcomes, Historian says Fla. dispute shows why AP class in African American studies is needed, Why Church Committee alums urged new House panel to avoid partisanship, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, Rewriting history to include all of it this time. 5.0. He praises them because they were great men. R, R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slaves redemption from his chains.One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the American church towards the anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in England towards a similar movement in that country. was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. He celebrates the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England.[18]. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. [16] Additionally, it awarded $10 to a judge who sentenced an individual to return to enslavement, while awarding only $5 if the claim was dismissed. Easel Activity. Ossie DavisA Voice Ringing O'er the Gale! Random House. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. O! Genius is the ultimate source of music knowledge, created by scholars like you who share facts and insight about the songs and artists they love. This truth is not a doubtful one. [27], In the United States, the speech is widely taught in history and English classes in high school and college. Table of Contents. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away. Summary: "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" In "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?", otherwise known as "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," Frederick Douglassoutlines a careful argument against the institution of slavery and more specifically the Fugitive Slave Act. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. You have no right to enjoy a childs share in the labor of your fathers, unless your children are to be blest by your labors. GAZETTE: This is your second year as host of Reading Frederick Douglass Together in Somerville. The speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers. But the 1852 "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech remains the best known of his addresses on the occasion, especially as it became even more widely read in the late-20th century,. [7], The Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1851. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. You may rejoice, I must mourn. The Oratory of Fr. Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when he declared that There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds; and that they do not do this involves them in the most awful responsibility of which the mind can conceive.In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; but how, we ask, could such a thing be done? Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to. Oh! An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he con signs to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. [5] American studies professor Andrew S. Bibby argues that because many of the editions produced for educational use are abridged, they often misrepresent Douglass's original through omission or editorial focus. On July 5, 1852, in . In short, it gave the federal government an active role in maintaining the Souths system of slavery. Yea! No! Ex-Vice-President Dallas tells us that the Constitution is an object to which no American mind can be too attentive, and no American heart too devoted. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. How should I look to-day, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglass's life and the evolution of his thought in this period. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. [4], The speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. Frederick Douglass, a well-known Black writer, orator, and abolitionist was asked to address an anti-slavery group on the July 4 holiday in 1852. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. Space is comparatively annihilated. I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. In the second part of the speech, Douglass turns to the present and his own feelings about the 4th of July . The Fugitive Slave Law makes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) the internal slave trade. It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul! If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. The testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. Douglass then pivots to the present, stating that "We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future". That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! one of the most important speeches of the 19th century? On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.I have detained my audience entirely too long already. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. He describes the legislation as "tyrannical," and believes that it is in "violation of justice.". Douglass then discusses the internal slave trade in America. we wept when we remembered Zion. [28][29] The head of the organization responsible for the memorial speculated that it was vandalized in response to the removal of Confederate monuments in the wake of the George Floyd protests.[30]. Kate Harris Date Published September 28, 2016 Last Modified November 14, 2021 Description. So its important that our city and our society are outraged by the recent murders of unarmed black people. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. Another remarkable thing about Douglass is that he was an early champion of voting rights for women. Yea! The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. [Under the Act] it became illegal not to arrest and return runaway slaves. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. You glory in your refinement and your universal education yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful as ever stained the character of a nationa system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty. GAZETTE: What is the historical setting for this speech, and why did Douglass focus on the Fourth of July? Douglass declares that true freedom can not exist in America if Black people are still enslaved there and is adamant that the end of slavery is near. or is it in the temple? One of the biggest challenges we face in our present moment is building sustainable movements that fundamentally change peoples minds about race and racism. Oppression makes a wise man mad. Nevertheless, Douglass claims that this can change. Douglass says that if the residents of America believe that slaves are "men",[20]:342 they should be treated as such. This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 19:31. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. My soul sickens at the sight. Is it at the gateway? They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke put together have done. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding.There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to bum their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen. Your President, your Secretary of State, your lords, nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. Douglass then returns to the topic of the founding of the United States. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To . America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. What characteristics does he praise about them? For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. He became a leader in the abolitionist movement, which sought to end the practice of slavery, before and during the Civil War. 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