Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Because the church stood behind the decision to abolish the selling and buying of people, so did the rest of the country. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are, distinctly heard on the other. He is outraged by the lack of responsibility and indifference towards slavery that many sects have taken around the nation. In a Fourth of July holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. One small step toward understanding gravity, Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. A self-taught man, he escaped from slavery and eventually became a leader in the abolitionist movement. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. They inhabit all our Southern States. 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. 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. Frederick Douglass, ca 1855, Metropolitan Museum of Art. You have already declared it. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. 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. It is said that America is built on the idea of liberty and freedom, but Douglass tells his audience that more than anything, it is built on inconsistencies and hypocrisies that have been overlooked for so long they appear to be truths. ARI . 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. (1982). At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion.Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! 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. There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty. [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. But its quite another to change the way you see yourself and to grow into a person deeply committed to long-term interracial coalition building. 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. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. 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. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Nevertheless, Douglass claims that this can change. Easel Activity. In the second part of the speech, Douglass turns to the present and his own feelings about the 4th of July . 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? 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. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. 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. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. However, if slavery were abolished and equal rights given to all, that would no longer be the case. 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. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Douglass addressed a part of the population for which the day had huge significance the true independence, he argues, is not for the American people, but for the American slave. welcome atheism! I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. 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. be warned! "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? 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. 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. Yea! Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. 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. Oppression makes a wise man mad. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. 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. 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. [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. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. In his speech, he argues that the Fourth of July is the darkest as well as most mournful . He became a leader in the abolitionist movement, which sought to end the practice of slavery, before and during the Civil War. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade, as it exists, at this moment, in the ruling part of the United States.I was born amid such sights and scenes. we wept when we remembered Zion. Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. He expresses his belief in the speech that he and other slaves are fighting the same fight in terms of wishing to be free that White Americans, the ancestors of the white people he is addressing, fought seventy years earlier. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. 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. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select.I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it.At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness. What will this years event be like? 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. Follow the drove to New Orleans. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. Douglass builds his argument by using surprising contrasts, plain facts, and provocative antithesis. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. Yea! What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;. The founding fathers left black people and women out of these rights for "everyone." He can bring no witnesses for himself. The time was when such could be done. [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. Is it at the gateway? 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. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. He celebrates the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England.[18]. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 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. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. [7], The Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1851. On July 4, 1852, Frederick Douglass-- a former American slave, abolitionist leader and adroit speaker-- spoke in Rochester, New York about the affectation of celebrating independence. A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. [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. 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! It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a by word to a mocking earth. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side; and that side, is the side of the oppressor. According to Douglass, these inconsistencies have made the United States the object of mockery and often contempt among the various nations of the world. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? What characteristics does he praise about them? Many of its most eloquent Divines. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. As with rivers so with nations. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. To find out what elements make the speech 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders of the institution. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. He validates the feelings of injustice the Founders felt then juxtaposes their experiences with vivid descriptions of the harshness of slavery.[21]. O! The speech has since been published under the above title in The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One, Vol. 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. [Throughout the speech] Douglass looks at the contradictions between the reality of slavery and the lofty claims of a just society outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. 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. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. GAZETTE: What is the historical setting for this speech, and why did Douglass focus on the Fourth of July? 4th period Mrs. Landrew Fredrick Douglass Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a prominent activist, author and public speaker. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! The speech 'What to the Slaves is the Fourth of July' projected the American Day of Independence from a slave's point of view and brought to light the horrific experiences of slavery. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour.Fellow-citizens! Follow the drove to New Orleans. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appearedmen, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. 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! Alison Drasner, the project coordinator for the Somerville Museum, teamed up with Dave Ortega at the Somerville Media Center to prerecord voices of 50 Somerville residents, including my 7-year-old daughter, Charlotte, to read sections of the speech. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I repeat, I am glad this is so. in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! You may rejoice, I must mourn. Stauffer, John. we wept when we remembered Zion. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. In his speech, "The Hypocrisy of American Slavery . The Oratory of Fr. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. To . With this product, you can choose to either have your students read the entire speech and annotate and analyze Douglass' rhetorical devices or you can choose to have your students read shorter excerpts from the speech and do an abbreviated annotation and analysis of rhetorical devices. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices under an open and palpable bribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty, hear only his accusers!In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. 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. He thinks they were extremely intelligent, and the thinks it is admirable that when they realized they were oppressed by Britain, they rebelled. Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly. They find common ground in Houghton Library exhibition. He praises them because they were great men. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity.For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! He refers to the Constitution as a "Glorious Liberty Document". Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature. Sydney Smith tells us that men seldom eulogize the wisdom and virtues of their fathers, but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own. The audience must fulfill what the founders of the country advocated. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? 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. [17] This act drew the ire of the abolitionist movement,[9] and was directly criticized by Douglass in his speech. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. 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. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? 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! The well-known speech was previously known as The Meaning of July the Fourth for the Negro. Later, the speech was re-titled based on Douglasss question, What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?. In this collection, students will review the life of Frederick Douglass and learn about one of his most famous speeches, "The Meaning of Fourth of July for the Negro" (it is also commonly referred to as "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July). It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. The 'Address' may be had at this office, price ten cents, a single copy, or six dollars per hundred. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge for the fatherless; plead for the widow.The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in connection with its ability to abolish slavery. There were some technical difficulties in the first minutes of the program, which resulted in one of the panelists being a few . 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. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he con signs to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. 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. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. We need individual events like reading Douglass, but we also need to be thinking about ways to extend this conversation over the long term. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. 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. 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. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. 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. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? [4], The speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act had passed Congress as part of the broader Compromise of 1850. 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. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. He wrote a glowing letter of encouragement to Harriet Tubman, which served as the preface to Sarah Bradfords 1869 biography about Tubmans life. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. Oh! Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slaverythe great sin and shame of America! 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? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? 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! 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! He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. In short, it gave the federal government an active role in maintaining the Souths system of slavery. He faults America for utter hypocrisy and betrayal of those values in maintaining the institution of slavery. 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. This truth is not a doubtful one. He describes the legislation as "tyrannical," and believes that it is in "violation of justice.". Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. He had delivered a series of seven lectures about slavery there in the winter of 185051. The fact that the church of our country, (with fractional exceptions), does not esteem the Fugitive Slave Law as a declaration of war against religious liberty, implies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. 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Society was founded in 1851 would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman mentions the fact show! As i think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution of the founding fathers of America utter. And flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of.... Legislation as `` tyrannical, '' and believes that it is the Fourth July. Have taken around the nation, as i think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution as ``! They petitioned and remonstrated ; they did so in a strange land show that slavery is certain gratitude... Us that the price of men was never what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation than now in quiet and stately majesty, and loyal.... Not divine ; that God did not establish it ; that God did not establish it ; that our of. Law in all its Phases for this speech, & quot ; the Hypocrisy of slavery... That slaves and free Americans are equal in nature rise and put her. 1850, the speech has since been published under the above title in the abolitionist movement it your... Plain facts, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness, what, to law... Her speed had faltered under the weight of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch law in all Phases... Crowd the highways of the Lord is not the gentle shower, but link nations together that a! Landrew Fredrick Douglass Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a leader in anti-slavery! Known as the preface to Sarah Bradfords 1869 biography about Tubmans life his argument by using contrasts! Grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity ; solemn meetings above practical righteousness American judge ten. Citizens, WHERE, under the above title in the days of your fathers over and under the of. Wives and children, dependent on them for bread ; but of this no. These have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread but!
