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. (3) $3.99. 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. Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July | Historical Context The Colonial regime paved way for the transportation of slaves from different parts of the world, mostly from the African continent to work in southern states of America on cash crop plantations that generated a great source of income. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. 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. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs. He wrote a glowing letter of encouragement to Harriet Tubman, which served as the preface to Sarah Bradfords 1869 biography about Tubmans life. Frederick Douglass, born a slave and later the most influential African American leader of the 1800s, addresses the hypocrisy of the US of maintaining slavery with its upheld ideals being freedom and independence on July 4th, 1852. Yea! It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to. This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 19:31. He thinks they were extremely intelligent, and the thinks it is admirable that when they realized they were oppressed by Britain, they rebelled. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Oppression makes a wise man mad. Where these are, man is not sacred. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away. In a Fourth of July holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. [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. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. ARI . The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. 2003. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. 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. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. 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. 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? 00 Comments Please sign inor registerto post comments. 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. 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. They that can, may; I cannot. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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. 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. 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. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument.Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. we wept when we remembered Zion. ROY: The better we get to know the people that we live with, that we work around, that we see at the coffee shop, and the more we talk about these important racial issues with one another, the easier it will be to heal our divided communities. 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. 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. Yea! GAZETTE: What is something you have discovered about Douglass while researching this speech and his work more broadly that people might be surprised to learn? They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. The 'Address' may be had at this office, price ten cents, a single copy, or six dollars per hundred. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. 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. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Must we allow symbols of racism on public land? 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. Kate Harris Date Published September 28, 2016 Last Modified November 14, 2021 Description. 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. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. [12], According to the 1850 Census, there were around 3.2 million enslaved persons in the United States. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? These rules are well established. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. 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. 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. 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. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? So its important that our city and our society are outraged by the recent murders of unarmed black people. 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. Douglass believed that slavery could be eliminated with the support of the church, and also with the reexamination of what the Bible was actually saying. 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. 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." I am not that man. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. 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! Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. The inaugural meeting between six women took place in Corinthian Hall on August 20. 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 mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. 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. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. 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. Text Frederick Douglass, " What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? 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. 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. 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. 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. $ 3.60. "[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 fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. Douglass, Frederick, ed. we wept when we remembered Zion. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. be warned! 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. 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. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. The country can progress like it has before, transforming from being a colony of a far-away king to an independent nation. 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. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! Douglass referred not only to the captivity of enslaved people, but to the merciless exploitation and the cruelty and torture that slaves were subjected to in the United States. 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. 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. To find out what elements make the speech 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' 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. 2. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. The manhood of the slave is conceded. 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. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? [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. Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly. They find common ground in Houghton Library exhibition. 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. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass 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? For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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. As the project scholar, my role is to advise the process as it rolls out, to give a talk that provides contemporary and historical context and to facilitate the community discussion around the speech against the backdrop of other relevant issues. One small step toward understanding gravity, Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. 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 hold that every American citizen has a fight to form an opinion of the constitution, and to propagate that opinion, and to use all honorable means to make his opinion the prevailing one. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. 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. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. He validates the feelings of injustice the Founders felt then juxtaposes their experiences with vivid descriptions of the harshness of slavery.[21]. The Fugitive Slave Law makes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. be warned! From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Douglass argues that religion is the center of the problem but also the main solution to it. 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. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are, distinctly heard on the other. Easel Activity. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. 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. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated, Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cumin. [8] Frederick Douglass had moved to Rochester in 1847 in order to publish his newspaper The North Star. [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. 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. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. [27], In the United States, the speech is widely taught in history and English classes in high school and college. 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. The speech has since been published under the above title in The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One, Vol. 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! But now is the time, the important time. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What will this years event be like? These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! "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? [5], A statue of Douglass erected in Rochester in 2018 was torn down on July 5, 2020the 168th anniversary of the speech. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. 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! 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. 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. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. 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. 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?. 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. was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. Douglass then returns to the topic of the founding of the United States. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. It is neither. 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. [5] Many copies of one section of it, beginning in paragraph 32, have been circulated online. Yea! The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders of the institution. You live and must die, and you must do your work. 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. or is it in the temple? 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. Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July. (1982). They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. 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. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour.Fellow-citizens! Great Britain, and many other countries of that time, had already abolished slavery from its territories. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. Stauffer, John. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal!And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery." Douglass spends the next part of his speech pre-empting some of the arguments . They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. 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. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? In the second part of the speech, Douglass turns to the present and his own feelings about the 4th of July . Rhetorical Analysis Of Harvey Fourth Of July. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? Another remarkable thing about Douglass is that he was an early champion of voting rights for women. 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. 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