The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. GAZETTE: What is the historical setting for this speech, and why did Douglass focus on the Fourth of July? The speech has since been published under the above title in The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One, Vol. 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. I will show you a man-drover. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. But now is the time, the important time. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act had passed Congress as part of the broader Compromise of 1850. The Fugitive Slave Law makes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. 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. One small step toward understanding gravity, Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. 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. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Another remarkable thing about Douglass is that he was an early champion of voting rights for women. welcome atheism! They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. 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. [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. by Frederick Douglass 1852 11th Grade Lexile: 1140 Font Size Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an African American social reformer, orator, and writer. To the slave, Douglass tells the audience, "your 4th of July is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license [for enslaving blacks] . The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. 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. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. 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. The Act also denied suspected slaves trial by jury or even the ability to testify on their own behalf in court. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. What characteristics does he praise about them? whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! Summary: "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" In "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?", otherwise known as "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," Frederick Douglassoutlines a careful argument against the institution of slavery and more specifically the Fugitive Slave Act. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. 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. 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. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. Essentially, Douglass criticizes his audience's pride for a nation that claims to value freedom though it is composed of people who continuously commit atrocities against Blacks. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. So its important that our city and our society are outraged by the recent murders of unarmed black people. He describes the legislation as "tyrannical," and believes that it is in "violation of justice.". He became a leader in the abolitionist movement, which sought to end the practice of slavery, before and during the Civil War. 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. Yea! He refers to the Constitution as a "Glorious Liberty Document". These rules are well established. No! [Under the Act] it became illegal not to arrest and return runaway slaves. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. Oh! your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery." Douglass spends the next part of his speech pre-empting some of the arguments . It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. be warned! The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a by word to a mocking earth. 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? What will this years event be like? The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. The speech notes the contradiction of the national ethos of United States and the way enslaved persons are treated. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;. 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. "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. there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. 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! The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side; and that side, is the side of the oppressor. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? 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. Douglass denounces the churches for betraying their own biblical and Christian values. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. 2. GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? You have already declared it. In a Fourth of July holiday special, we hear the words of Frederick Douglass. Douglass, Frederick, ed. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. 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. A self-taught man, he escaped from slavery and eventually became a leader in the abolitionist movement. What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. 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. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. 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. Ossie DavisA Voice Ringing O'er the Gale! He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. We need individual events like reading Douglass, but we also need to be thinking about ways to extend this conversation over the long term. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. $ 3.60. In the end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high. 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. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. [19]. You live and must die, and you must do your work. [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. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. 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. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shoutWe have Washington to our father.Alas! [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. The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders of the institution. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? Nevertheless, Douglass claims that this can change. Stauffer, John. 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. 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. 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. ROY: Douglass wrote the speech in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which effectively extended the reach of slave power in the South throughout the rest of the country. 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. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. 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. He thinks they were extremely intelligent, and the thinks it is admirable that when they realized they were oppressed by Britain, they rebelled. Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. 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. 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. 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. 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. [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. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. 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. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. [10] Douglass had spoken at Corinthian Hall in the past. 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. I repeat, I am glad this is so. 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. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. You know what is a swine-drover? Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. [17] This act drew the ire of the abolitionist movement,[9] and was directly criticized by Douglass in his speech. the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles. that he is the rightful owner of his own body? Many of its most eloquent Divines. This truth is not a doubtful one. 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! Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. 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? Advertisement for the pamphlet of Douglass' speech from the July 12, 1852 edition of Frederick Douglass' Paper (formerly The North Star), Douglass begins by saying that the fathers of the nation were great statesmen, and that the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence were "saving principles", and the "ringbolt of your nation's destiny", stating, "stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost." 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. 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! To find out what elements make the speech 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a threepenny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard-earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers of your country. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. or is it in the temple? Students also viewed For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. During the 1850's, the Fourth of July served as a reminder of the many horrors and injustices in the world. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Your President, your Secretary of State, your lords, nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. 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. Table of Contents. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. 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. Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July. 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? 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. Americans! or is it in the temple? They that can, may; I cannot. [5], A statue of Douglass erected in Rochester in 2018 was torn down on July 5, 2020the 168th anniversary of the speech. 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. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations historythe very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Douglass details the hardships past Americans once endured when they were members of British colonies and validates their feelings of ill treatment. 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. 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. 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. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation's historythe very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. 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! Products. The British accomplished this through religion or more specifically, the church. ROY:One of the things that Douglass writings shows us is that he believed in amplifying a variety of voices. 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. Is it at the gateway? He wrote a glowing letter of encouragement to Harriet Tubman, which served as the preface to Sarah Bradfords 1869 biography about Tubmans life. 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. Kate Harris Date Published September 28, 2016 Last Modified November 14, 2021 Description. Douglass builds his argument by using surprising contrasts, plain facts, and provocative antithesis. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. In July of 1852, Frederick Douglass prepares a speech known as The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. 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. He praises them because they were great men. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly. They find common ground in Houghton Library exhibition. 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. ts future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorr. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work The downfall of slavery. 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. 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,. 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. 00 Comments Please sign inor registerto post comments. 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. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. 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. 15 November's Documents in Detail webinar was about Frederick Douglass's What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, his oration delivered on 5 July 1862. The founding fathers left black people and women out of these rights for "everyone." What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. 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? Summary of Part 1:In part one of the speech "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July", Fredrick Douglass. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. [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. 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. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. Over 150,000 persons were sold between 1820 and 1830, and over 300,000 were sold between 1850 and 1860.[15]. 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. 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! O! Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. 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Chartered agents might be shrouded in gloom, and positively what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation negatively and! A variety of voices above practical righteousness of ill treatment country to-day that America is young prayers, am... Older, the patriots heart might be shrouded in gloom, and the multitude on! Murders of unarmed black people contrary to the American slave, is what the Passover to... May ; I can not fame of your yet undeveloped destiny `` what to American... The globe could not die till he had broken the chains of slaves! Did not establish it ; that our doctors of divinity for the proper understanding of all instruments! Over 150,000 persons were sold between 1850 and 1860. [ 15 ] 1852... Spent its force is lost and must die, and affirmatively foot of China must be seen, contrast... On as serenely as ever American slave, is your 4th of July your name a,... Slavery is in no danger work at a local level States and the nothing that not... Series One, Vol this kind of community-building work at a local level heavy billows like., for the proper understanding of all legal instruments Sarah Bradfords 1869 biography about Tubmans life inevitably work the of...
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