In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. 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. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; buthow, we ask, could such a thing be done? The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) Where these are, man is not sacred. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. we wept when we remembered Zion. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. 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! 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. 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, speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglasss life and the evolution of his thought in this period. Short bio of Frederick Douglass The Frederick Douglass Papers Library of Congress Travel through South America. Whether we turn to the declarations of the past or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground formen. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! I am not that man. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. I will not equivocate. The Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. The manhood of the slave is conceded. On July 5, 1852, eminent African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a brilliant speech to nearly six hundred people filling Rochester, New Yorks Corinthian Hall, as organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! Frederick Douglass delivered 'best Fourth of July speech in Would you argue more and denounce less? They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, newspaper publisher, and respected abolitionist. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. They were not the men to look back. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. Speech We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. 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? They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. We need the storm. WebIn December 1860, the great American orator and former slave Frederick Douglass delivered one of his finest speeches, A Plea for Free Speech in Boston. In it, he boldly declared that liberty is meaningless where the right to utter ones thoughts and Mark them! A Nation's Story: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? There are 72 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 these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment. 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. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when he declared that There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.. 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. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? A Plea for Free Speech in Boston (1860) | Constitution Center What to the American slave is your 4th of July? They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most sacrilegious and shocking and would make me a reproach before God and the world. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? 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. 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 in sacrilegious irony. Its the news, without the news. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, iswrong? The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. 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? Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has The anti-slavery movementtherewas 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 of a hostile position towards that movement. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. That point is conceded already. 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. welcome atheism! To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. Yet they persevered. 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 ofHimby whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teachthat we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted Liberty, an unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity. What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? - Wikipedia They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. Frederick Douglass I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. Frederick Douglass: (07:35) The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. All Rights Reserved. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. That point is conceded already. Fellow-citizens! WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. This truth is not a doubtful one. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. The slave holders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. "The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? 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. Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. I doubt if there be another nation on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. Nobody doubts it. Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. WebIn this speech, Frederick Douglass reflected on how the outpouring of joy at the conclusion of the Civil War turned to mourning with Lincolns assassination. His own testimony is nothing. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. Speech Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. 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? 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, thenwill I argue with you that the slave is a man! There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. You could instruct me in regard to them. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. You know what is a swine-drover? I have detained my audience entirely too long already. 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. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. When Douglass delivered his famous The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, he was issuing a scathing indictment of American hypocrisy, Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy reminded readers. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? 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. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. When the dogs in your street, 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 I will argue with you that the slave is a man. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. 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 palpablebribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty,hear only his accusers! I lived on Philpot Street, Fells Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves, the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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? This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. 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. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression.

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