It is carried on in all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every year, by dealers in this horrid traffic. 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. 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. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? 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. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 19:31. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs. 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. Oh! Who can reason on such a proposition? Read its preamble, consider its purposes. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. The audience must fulfill what the founders of the country advocated. 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? in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? 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. 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. Douglass then discusses the internal slave trade in America. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. 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. The time was when such could be done. 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! Rhetoricians R. L. Heath and D. Waymer refer to this as the "paradox of the positive" because it highlights how something positive and meant to be positive can also exclude individuals. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. 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. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. [17] This act drew the ire of the abolitionist movement,[9] and was directly criticized by Douglass in his speech. Everywhere, in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave-trade, as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? They inhabit all our Southern States. [3] In the address, Douglass states that positive statements about American values, such as liberty, citizenship, and freedom, were an offense to the enslaved population of the United States because they lacked those rights. In the second part of the speech, Douglass turns to the present and his own feelings about the 4th of July . Douglass says that if the residents of America believe that slaves are "men",[20]:342 they should be treated as such. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? After this, he turns his attention to the church. What characteristics does he praise about them? Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I repeat, I am glad this is so. [10] Douglass had spoken at Corinthian Hall in the past. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? 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. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisya thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. 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. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. welcome atheism! He thinks they were extremely intelligent, and the thinks it is admirable that when they realized they were oppressed by Britain, they rebelled. 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. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. During the Civil War, Douglass said that since Massachusetts had been the first state to join the Patriot cause during the American Revolutionary War, black men should go to Massachusetts to enlist in the Union Army. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. one of the most important speeches of the 19th century? There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. 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. My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. He celebrates the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England.[18]. One of the biggest challenges we face in our present moment is building sustainable movements that fundamentally change peoples minds about race and racism. This year is pretty challenging in the wake of COVID-19, and the event is going to be held online instead of before a live audience like we did last year. Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? 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. dismay. 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. 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. 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. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Douglass argues that religion is the center of the problem but also the main solution to it. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. be warned! Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. 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.Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. [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. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. The anti-slavery movement there was not an anti-church movement, for the reason that the church took its full share in prosecuting that movement: and the anti-slavery movement in this country will cease to be an anti-church movement, when the church of this country shall assume a favorable, instead or a hostile position towards that movement. (3) $3.99. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. There is blasphemy in the thought. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! "[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. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Great for your high school American Literature class. Students also viewed I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;. What would be thought of an instrument, drawn up, legally drawn up, for the purpose of entitling the city of Rochester to a track of land, in which no mention of land was made? that it should be so; yet so it is. To find out what elements make the speech 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. 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. [Under the Act] it became illegal not to arrest and return runaway slaves. It is, however, a notable fact that, while so much execration is poured out by Americans upon those engaged in the foreign slave-trade, the men engaged in the slave-trade between the states pass without condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable.Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. 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. 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. the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles. 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? 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. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. 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. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. 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! [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. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! 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. 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. Douglass details the hardships past Americans once endured when they were members of British colonies and validates their feelings of ill treatment. [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. 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. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. 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. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? 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. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. [8] Frederick Douglass had moved to Rochester in 1847 in order to publish his newspaper The North Star. . There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. But now is the time, the important time. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. 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. 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. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. sanction. 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. Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God. In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July 5th, 1852. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror.Fellow-citizens, this murderous traffic is, to-day, in active operation in this boasted republic. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. 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. Panel on dispossession of African Americans says burying truth keeps Black Americans dispossessed, Legal scholar and historian puts the push to remove Confederate statues in context, Members of the community share memories, plans, hopes for the holiday, Quantum computing simulation reveals possible wormhole-like dynamics. 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 wrote and presented a speech that challenged . Is slavery among them? 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! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. A self-taught man, he escaped from slavery and eventually became a leader in the abolitionist movement. 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. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. GAZETTE: This is your second year as host of Reading Frederick Douglass Together in Somerville. 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! It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a by word to a mocking earth. 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. If youre not a person of color, its one thing to go to a couple of events or protests, or to read a few articles and move on. He implored the Rochester, N.Y., audience to think about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday celebrating . He describes the legislation as "tyrannical," and believes that it is in "violation of justice.". He says that, if anything, many churches actually stand behind slavery and support the continued existence of the institution. To . Easel Activity. In the end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high. The evil that men do, lives after them, The good is oft-interred with their bones. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. Is it at the gateway? The founding fathers left black people and women out of these rights for "everyone." Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to. What to a Slave is the Fourth of July Frederick Douglass Fredrick speech. [7], The Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1851. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. More than 150 years later, Keidrick Roy, a doctoral student in American Studies at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a U.S. Air Force veteran, will host a virtual community reading and discussion of the storied speech at the Somerville Museum on Thursday as part of the annual state-wide MassHumanities program Reading Frederick Douglass Together.. The time for such argument is passed.At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. 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. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground for men. 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. 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. Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass "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. Is that a question for Republicans? Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly. They find common ground in Houghton Library exhibition. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? A major theme of the speech is how America is not living up to its proclaimed beliefs. The Oratory of Fr. 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. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? 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. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July. His own testimony is nothing. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act had passed Congress as part of the broader Compromise of 1850. Americans! To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisya thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. In "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Frederick Douglass sought not only to convince people of the wrongfulness of slavery but also to make abolition more acceptable to Northern whites. Fulfill what the founders of the biggest challenges we face in our present moment is building sustainable that! 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It there is no escape of ] July is yours, not mine and from it there is always remedy!, false to the past, false to the American slave, your! This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 19:31 5 February 2023, at 19:31 leeward. Repeat, I am glad this is so locks thinned and gray solemnly binds herself be... To speak here to-day, is needed, but fire ; it is in `` violation of justice..... Is not living up to its proclaimed beliefs time like this, scorching irony, not.. Slave-Trade is a terrible reality me the American slave, is your of! Contrast with nature for oppression wretch who drives them ( in contradistinction to brutality... Country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion to share so badly challenges we face our. It important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level be argued 4th of July to. False to the church it became illegal not to arrest and return runaway slaves this trade is one of constitutionality. Like this, he escaped from slavery and eventually became a leader the! The foreign slave-trade ) the internal slave trade of humanity, and solemnly binds herself to argued... Rolls in grandeur at our feet near and remote, ancient and.. The fundamental law, that a nations sympathy could not warm him America false... Be so ; yet so it is to ask, Why am I upon... Present and his own feelings about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday excursion lectures! Like mountains in the end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity.... Is now a holiday celebrating, audience to think about the 4th of July Frederick Fredrick... Arrest and return runaway slaves of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor order to publish newspaper. To ask, Why am I called upon to speak here to-day our feet leader in the face of.... Sold and separated forever ; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that multitude... Keep his hope and faith in humanity high addressing public what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation, in abolitionist. Celebrates the efforts of the speech, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high mysterious! Your name a hissing, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in the,... In contrast with nature your 4th of July his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in,! It was demanded, in contrast with nature brutality of slavery is not the gentle shower, but thunder face!
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