This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. Great Britain, and many other countries of that time, had already abolished slavery from its territories. [3] In the address, Douglass states that positive statements about American values, such as liberty, citizenship, and freedom, were an offense to the enslaved population of the United States because they lacked those rights. 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. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! 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. 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. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? 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? Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. One small step toward understanding gravity, Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. 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. However, if slavery were abolished and equal rights given to all, that would no longer be the case. 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. 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. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? 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. 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. 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. [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. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. So its important that our city and our society are outraged by the recent murders of unarmed black people. How digital misinformation may keep you from a good nights sleep, Study finds surgical patients with addiction issues may be at greater risk for complications, including sudden cardiac death after anesthesia, Khalil Gibran Muhammad says College Board needs to stand firm behind curriculum, Chief counsel of respected mid-70s Senate inquiry into improper federal investigations says credibility of oversight function at stake, 2023 The President and Fellows of Harvard College, Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, By Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite Harvard Staff Writer, 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. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders of the institution. You have already declared it. He took action to raise the voices of others and to aid their work on the national stage, especially that of two Black women in the last half of the 19th century. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. He can bring no witnesses for himself. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. That point is conceded already. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. 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 Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. 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. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. 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. He says that, if anything, many churches actually stand behind slavery and support the continued existence of the institution. 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. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Space is comparatively annihilated. 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. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. 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. PDF. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more. welcome atheism! To . You may rejoice, I must mourn. [Under the Act] it became illegal not to arrest and return runaway slaves. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! 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!Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. that he is the rightful owner of his own body? The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. Summary of Part 1:In part one of the speech "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July", Fredrick Douglass. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side; and that side, is the side of the oppressor. official permission or approval. 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. Nobody doubts it. 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. From what quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. During the 1850's, the Fourth of July served as a reminder of the many horrors and injustices in the world. The Oratory of Fr. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. Were not only going to be reading books like White Fragility, and Divided by Faith, but were also going to read and watch a number of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., and documentaries like 13th and King in the Wilderness, as we try to get at the root of racial division so we can come together to remove it. Who can reason on such a proposition? 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. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.But, such is not the state of the case. 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. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. [8] Frederick Douglass had moved to Rochester in 1847 in order to publish his newspaper The North Star. 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. [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. On July 5, 1852, in . 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. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. This truth is not a doubtful one. your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery." Douglass spends the next part of his speech pre-empting some of the arguments . America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future, Douglass said. And it also imposed severe penalties on anyone who helped enslaved people to escape. 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. Frederick Douglass, ca 1855, Metropolitan Museum of Art. 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. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. 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." Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? In his speech, "The Hypocrisy of American Slavery . They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. In short, it gave the federal government an active role in maintaining the Souths system of slavery. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? 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 destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. You know what is a swine-drover? 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! 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. ROY:One of the things that Douglass writings shows us is that he believed in amplifying a variety of voices. 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. 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 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. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work The downfall of slavery. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.What, then, remains to be argued? It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. 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. 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. 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). They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. 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. On 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 orator, often traveling six months out of the year to give lectures on abolition. Frederick Douglass, circa 1879. 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. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? 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. 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. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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. 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? Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Easel Activity. 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. 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. 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. 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. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. Keidrick Roy, the host of the virtual reading event. 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. 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. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The manhood of the slave is conceded. 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! one of the most important speeches of the 19th century? 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. 5.0. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. 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! What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 19:31. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Douglass vividly describes the conditions under which those enslaved are bought and sold; he says that they are treated as no more than animals. Where these are, man is not sacred. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. GAZETTE: What is the historical setting for this speech, and why did Douglass focus on the Fourth of July? He praises them because they were great men. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. They that can, may; I cannot. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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. Students also viewed The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. 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. Must we allow symbols of racism on public land? Is that a question for Republicans? (1982). 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. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. 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. Not everyone. 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! 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. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. 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. 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. As with rivers so with nations. 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. the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles. He faults America for utter hypocrisy and betrayal of those values in maintaining the institution of slavery. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. 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. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. He also wrote a letter to Ida B. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to. What to a Slave is the Fourth of July Frederick Douglass Fredrick speech. 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