Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. How should I look today in the presence of Americans dividing and subdividing, a discourse to show that men have a natural right to freedom speaking of it, relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. Follow the drove to New Orleans. 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, aseventh partof the inhabitants of your country. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. WebOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Douglass was a powerful R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slaves redemption from his chains. Who can reason on such a proposition? Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds; and that they do not do this involves them in the most awful responsibility of which the mind can conceive. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. Go search where you will. All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation a religion, a church, and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God. And while slavery has long been abolished and outlawed, the sentiment behind the address still applies in many unfortunate ways when it comes to the overall Black experience in 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. That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. 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? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. 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 Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. 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. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. 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. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. O! At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. we wept when we remembered Zion. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Is that a question for Republicans? Is slavery among them? 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, But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) WebOn December 3, 1860, Frederick Douglass and a group of fellow abolitionists met at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston for a discussion centered around the following 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. It was, Milloy continued, a critique of a nation that claimed to hold dear the principles of freedom, justice and equality even as it enslaved black people.. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. But, such is not the state of the case. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nations bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic;for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, andlet the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. 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.. If I do forget, if I do not 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. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. 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. One of the parts of the speech that resonates with me the most is when Douglass says: What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. They were not the men to look back. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. You could instruct me in regard to them. His own testimony is nothing. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. 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. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. No! What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. What then remains to be argued? Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. They have all been taught in your common schools, narrated at your firesides, unfolded from your pulpits, and thundered from your legislative halls, and are as familiar to you as household words. We thank you for taking the time to watch this community reading of Frederick Douglasss What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Source: Blight, David. There is not a nation of the earth, guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. I cannot. To do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. 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, My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. 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. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. 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. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. 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. I repeat, I am glad this is so. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. 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. President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. 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.
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