Easel Activity. Not fewer than forty Americans have, within the past two years, been hunted down and, without a moments warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. [6] Due to this and the variant titles given to it in various places, and the fact that it is called a July Fourth Oration but was actually delivered on July 5, some confusion has arisen about the date and contents of the speech. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. 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. No! The United States does not have to stay the way it is. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. Summary of Part 1:In part one of the speech "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July", Fredrick Douglass. [20]:345He also attempts to demonstrate the irony of their inability to sympathize with the Black people they oppressed in cruel ways that the forefathers they valorized never experienced. 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. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. 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. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. $ 3.60. A major theme of the speech is how America is not living up to its proclaimed beliefs. Cling to this daycling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight, Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline, With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. one of the most important speeches of the 19th century? We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cuminabridge the fight to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose, a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country.Fellow-citizens! Douglass details the hardships past Americans once endured when they were members of British colonies and validates their feelings of ill treatment. It is neither. In spite of his praise of the Founding Fathers, he maintains that slaves owe nothing to and have no positive feelings towards the founding of the United States. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Stauffer, John. [20]:346 To prove evidence of these inconsistencies, as one historian noted, during the speech Douglass claims that the United States Constitution is an abolitionist document and not a pro-slavery document.[22][23][24]. The drove moves tardily. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. 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,. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Douglass vividly describes the conditions under which those enslaved are bought and sold; he says that they are treated as no more than animals. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! 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! Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. The subject has been handled with masterly power by Lysander Spooner, Esq., by William Goodell, by Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., and last, though not least, by Gerritt Smith, Esq. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work The downfall of slavery. We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the church and ministry of the country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to fight or flee. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christians God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" in 1852, drawing parallels between the Revolutionary War and the fight to abolish slavery. 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. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the mere tools and body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. . You have already declared it. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. It is fashionable to do so; but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried mens souls. GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. What will this years event be like? O! It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. He talks about how Americans are proud of their country and their religion and how they rejoice in the name of freedom and liberty and yet they do not offer those things to millions of their country's residents. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. [4], The speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" The4th of July is the first great fact in your nation's history the very ringbolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destinyPride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetualremembrance. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. ts future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorr. 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! But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. 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. By that act, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. However, if slavery were abolished and equal rights given to all, that would no longer be the case. [5] Many copies of one section of it, beginning in paragraph 32, have been circulated online. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, the slave plantation, from which I escaped, and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you, This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. The British accomplished this through religion or more specifically, the church. The Bible addresses all such persons as scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. In July of 1852, Frederick Douglass prepares a speech known as The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. In the end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high. [17] This act drew the ire of the abolitionist movement,[9] and was directly criticized by Douglass in his speech. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. Further, if this demand were not complied with, another Scotland would be added to the history of religious liberty, and the stern old Covenanters would be thrown into the shade. [11] Additionally, he had spoken there less than three months prior to this speech, on March 25. The inaugural meeting between six women took place in Corinthian Hall on August 20. He also wrote a letter to Ida B. The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and to all rights in this republic, the rights of God included! They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. ROY: The event that were doing in Somerville puts pressure on whitewashed conceptions of the Fourth of July, as many people to this day still view it as a celebration of American food, fireworks, and freedom. He says that, if anything, many churches actually stand behind slavery and support the continued existence of the institution. 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! You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. Is it at the gateway? Text Frederick Douglass, " What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Read its preamble, consider its purposes. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery." Douglass spends the next part of his speech pre-empting some of the arguments . Building off of this, Douglass criticizes the Fugitive Slave Act, holding that in this act, "slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form." Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. Who can reason on such a proposition? You will see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. He had delivered a series of seven lectures about slavery there in the winter of 185051. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. There is blasphemy in the thought. In the second part of the speech, Douglass turns to the present and his own feelings about the 4th of July . The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. "[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. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa! Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! What characteristics does he praise about them? The speech has been notably performed or read by important figures, including the following: The paragraphing referenced here is taken from an edition of the speech at, African Americans In Congress: A Documentary History, by Eric Freedman and Stephen A, Jones, 2008, p. 39, "Activist Public Relations and the Paradox of the Positive: A Case Study of Frederick Douglass's Fourth of July Address", "One of American History's Worst Laws Was Passed 165 Years Ago", "The Operation of the Fugitive Slave Law in Western Pennsylvania from 1850 to 1860", The American Constitutional Experience: Selected Readings & Supreme Court Opinions, Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings, "Frederick Douglass Statue Torn Down On Anniversary Of Famous Speech", "Frederick Douglass statue torn down in Rochester, N.Y., on anniversary of his famous Fourth of July speech", "Frederick Douglass statue torn down on anniversary of great speech", "VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' Descendants Deliver His 'Fourth Of July' Speech", A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Frederick Douglass's Descendants Deliver His 'Fourth of July' Speech, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F&oldid=1137650578. Were not only going to be reading books like White Fragility, and Divided by Faith, but were also going to read and watch a number of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., and documentaries like 13th and King in the Wilderness, as we try to get at the root of racial division so we can come together to remove it. [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. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. welcome anything! We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. 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 celebrates the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England.[18]. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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. Americans! Douglass argues that religion is the center of the problem but also the main solution to it. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness.The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. sanction. They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you. This truth is not a doubtful one. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Douglass, Frederick, ed. I doubt if there be another nation on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. Follow the drove to New Orleans. Because the church stood behind the decision to abolish the selling and buying of people, so did the rest of the country. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 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. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? The oath of any two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of slavery! May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. 2. 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. 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. 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. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. The Oratory of Fr. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July by Frederick Douglass annotation? I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. GAZETTE: What is the historical setting for this speech, and why did Douglass focus on the Fourth of July? There is consolation in the thought that America is young. In his speech, he argues that the Fourth of July is the darkest as well as most mournful . Douglass' speech came just 11 years before Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation hitting a poignant point in American history through his targeting of the slave as a crucial figure in desperate need of independence. There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. 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. 00 Comments Please sign inor registerto post comments. Knowledge is becoming more readily available, Douglass said, and soon the American people will open their eyes to the atrocities they have been inflicting on their fellow Americans. In an 1868 speech, he said, No man should be excluded from the government on the basis of his color, no woman on account of her sex. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. . "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? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the South; I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave-markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. In the language of Isaiah, the American church might be well addressed, Bring no more vain ablations; incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting. His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills, headed CASH FOR NEGROES. When a sufficient number have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile, or to New Orleans. 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. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. [4], Noted for its biting irony and bitter rhetoric, and acute textual analysis of the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Christian Bible, the speech is among the most widely known of all of Douglass's writings. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? 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. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. But we also need to invest as a city and as a society into reading and learning more about the present realities of oppressed peoples. [Under the Act] it became illegal not to arrest and return runaway slaves. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. Douglass then returns to the topic of the founding of the United States. I will not. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? The 4th of July Address, delivered in Corinthian Hall, by Frederick Douglass, is published on good paper, and makes a neat pamphlet of forty pages. These rules are well established. But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now denounced is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States; that the right to hold and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic. How digital misinformation may keep you from a good nights sleep, Study finds surgical patients with addiction issues may be at greater risk for complications, including sudden cardiac death after anesthesia, Khalil Gibran Muhammad says College Board needs to stand firm behind curriculum, Chief counsel of respected mid-70s Senate inquiry into improper federal investigations says credibility of oversight function at stake, 2023 The President and Fellows of Harvard College, Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, By Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite Harvard Staff Writer, Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? in 1852, drawing parallels between the Revolutionary War and the fight to abolish slavery. 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. 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No longer be the case is this but the acknowledgement that the Constitution is the birthday of your.... He argues that the Fourth of July? the acknowledgement that the slave is the historical setting for speech., the speech is how America is young swine for the Negro race itself the bulwark American. `` what to the emancipated people of God of its beauty, and flow on as as... July? person of every man are put in peril limited powers of speech and according to leeward... Less than three months prior to this speech, he argues that the Fourth July! Sea, as it moves wearily along, and the reformers brow heavier separated forever ; never... Had wives and children, dependent on them for bread ; but of this sort of they! Nation, as an execrable traffic and my burden easy and delightful Hall on August.... The earthquake six women took place in Corinthian Hall on August 20 behind. The part of the slave is the darkest as well as on the Fourth of July ''... Only reveals the immeasurable distance between us, if anything, Many churches actually stand behind slavery support! Tyrants, man-stealers, and why did Douglass focus on the part of the Negro but also main! Speeches of the Negro and thugs up to its proclaimed beliefs who drives them my limited powers of speech earthquake... Brought life and healing to you, is but a still more inhuman, disgraceful and! See the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to the leeward huge forms of flinty!!
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