The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. He implored the Rochester, N.Y., audience to think about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday celebrating . Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. In that speech, he cast the abolitionist movement as being engaged in a "War" against defenders of slavery. [28][29] The head of the organization responsible for the memorial speculated that it was vandalized in response to the removal of Confederate monuments in the wake of the George Floyd protests.[30]. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appearedmen, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. Another remarkable thing about Douglass is that he was an early champion of voting rights for women. They inhabit all our Southern States. 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. In his speech, he argues that the Fourth of July is the darkest as well as most mournful . Douglass then returns to the topic of the founding of the United States. At the same time, we need to be studying the history of slavery and racism in this country so we can build policies, practices, and procedures that address the present problems with those historical inequities in mind. The Oratory of Fr. 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. ts future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorr. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. 5.0. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. 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 celebrates the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England.[18]. 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. In short, it gave the federal government an active role in maintaining the Souths system of slavery. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, 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! or is it in the temple? [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. 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 this collection, students will review the life of Frederick Douglass and learn about one of his most famous speeches, "The Meaning of Fourth of July for the Negro" (it is also commonly referred to as "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July). 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. Is it at the gateway? 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 can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. 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. [17] This act drew the ire of the abolitionist movement,[9] and was directly criticized by Douglass in his speech. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? 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. Must we allow symbols of racism on public land? 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. They are plain, common-sense rules, such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply, without having passed years in the study of law. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground for men. In a Fourth of July holiday special, we hear the words of Frederick Douglass. He praises them because they were great men. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July by Frederick Douglass annotation? This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. He describes the legislation as "tyrannical," and believes that it is in "violation of justice.". There are seventy-two 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 the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. 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. But we also need to invest as a city and as a society into reading and learning more about the present realities of oppressed peoples. There should be no shoulder that does not bear the burden of the government. He had a prophetic vision for the future that he was always trying to work toward. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. And it also imposed severe penalties on anyone who helped enslaved people to escape. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers. 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? The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations historythe very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. 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. 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. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. It is said that America is built on the idea of liberty and freedom, but Douglass tells his audience that more than anything, it is built on inconsistencies and hypocrisies that have been overlooked for so long they appear to be truths. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. "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. 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. (3) $3.99. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. That is a question Frederick Douglass posed 169 Julys ago in a speech to a group of abolitionists, one that's become perhaps his most famous. 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. During the 1850's, the Fourth of July served as a reminder of the many horrors and injustices in the world. The time for such argument is passed.At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. 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. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 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. Americans! 2. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. 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.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.In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; but how, we ask, could such a thing be done? This act forced citizens to report people who had escaped their enslavement and escaped to a free state, under punishment of a fine or imprisonment. He can bring no witnesses for himself. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. 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. 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. 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. The Act also denied suspected slaves trial by jury or even the ability to testify on their own behalf in court. Douglass builds his argument by using surprising contrasts, plain facts, and provocative antithesis. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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. The 'Address' may be had at this office, price ten cents, a single copy, or six dollars per hundred. Frederick Douglass, circa 1879. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. By that act, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! 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. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 19:31. dismay. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. 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. 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. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. What to a Slave is the Fourth of July Frederick Douglass Fredrick speech. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. 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. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" in 1852, drawing parallels between the Revolutionary War and the fight to abolish slavery. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. Students also viewed What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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. Worksheet Excerpt Analyzing Rhetorical Devices in "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?": It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. There were some technical difficulties in the first minutes of the program, which resulted in one of the panelists being a few . I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. $ 3.60. we wept when we remembered Zion. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. 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. 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. 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. 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. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. 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! Stauffer, John. Douglass denounces the churches for betraying their own biblical and Christian values. [27], In the United States, the speech is widely taught in history and English classes in high school and college. It was fashionable, hundreds of years ago, for the children of Jacob to boast, we have Abraham to our father, when they had long lost Abrahams faith and spirit. Is it at the gateway? 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. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. 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. 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. 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. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature. 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 charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. The time was when such could be done. He says that, if anything, many churches actually stand behind slavery and support the continued existence of the institution. A major theme of the speech is how America is not living up to its proclaimed beliefs. 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." The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. 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. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. He became a leader in the abolitionist movement, which sought to end the practice of slavery, before and during the Civil War. 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. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders of the institution. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding.There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to bum their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cuminabridge the fight to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. [19]. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. 4th period Mrs. Landrew Fredrick Douglass Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a prominent activist, author and public speaker. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. It is neither. 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. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. O! "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? 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. 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. 00 Comments Please sign inor registerto post comments. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. 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. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. Products. 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. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. The Fugitive Slave Law makes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. 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. 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. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future, Douglass said. [Under the Act] it became illegal not to arrest and return runaway slaves. You know what is a swine-drover? But now is the time, the important time. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? The speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. 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. 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. The inaugural meeting between six women took place in Corinthian Hall on August 20. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? 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. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. [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 arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. 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