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. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. Follow the drove to New Orleans. The Oratory of Fr. 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. In the end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high. Douglass addressed a part of the population for which the day had huge significance the true independence, he argues, is not for the American people, but for the American slave. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. 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 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. Summary of Part 1:In part one of the speech "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July", Fredrick Douglass. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. 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! I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slaverythe great sin and shame of America! The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. 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. 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? It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! [5], A statue of Douglass erected in Rochester in 2018 was torn down on July 5, 2020the 168th anniversary of the speech. Douglass then discusses the internal slave trade in America. 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. 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." Oh! one of the most important speeches of the 19th century? 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! These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour.Fellow-citizens! the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles. 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? Douglass then pivots to the present, stating that "We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future". You have already declared it. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select.I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it.At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness. Cling to this daycling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight, Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline, With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. 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. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. The audience must fulfill what the founders of the country advocated. It is neither. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. 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. Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. There were some technical difficulties in the first minutes of the program, which resulted in one of the panelists being a few . Is slavery among them? But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. 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). [7], The Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1851. 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. 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, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever!But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now denounced is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States; that the right to hold and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic.Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. . By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. 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. He also wrote a letter to Ida B. "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. 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. [20]:344. Douglass equates this to being worse than many other things that are banned, in particular, books and plays that are banned for infidelity. Text Frederick Douglass, " What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? The 'Address' may be had at this office, price ten cents, a single copy, or six dollars per hundred. 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. On July 5, 1852, in . 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. 2. 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 I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. During the 1850's, the Fourth of July served as a reminder of the many horrors and injustices in the world. More than 150 years later, Keidrick Roy, a doctoral student in American Studies at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a U.S. Air Force veteran, will host a virtual community reading and discussion of the storied speech at the Somerville Museum on Thursday as part of the annual state-wide MassHumanities program Reading Frederick Douglass Together.. In this respect, Douglass's views converged with that of Abraham Lincoln's[25] in that those politicians who were saying that the Constitution was a justification for their beliefs in regard to slavery were doing so dishonestly. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Another remarkable thing about Douglass is that he was an early champion of voting rights for women. Yea! 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. 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. Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. Douglass then returns to the topic of the founding of the United States. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. 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. [17] This act drew the ire of the abolitionist movement,[9] and was directly criticized by Douglass in his speech. That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. [4], The speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" PDF. in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! 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. In short, it gave the federal government an active role in maintaining the Souths system of slavery. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. Yea! 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! 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. Is slavery among them? Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. We need individual events like reading Douglass, but we also need to be thinking about ways to extend this conversation over the long term. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! 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. 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! A major theme of the speech is how America is not living up to its proclaimed beliefs. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. In that speech, he cast the abolitionist movement as being engaged in a "War" against defenders of slavery. 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? 2. 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. It is, however, a notable fact that, while so much execration is poured out by Americans upon those engaged in the foreign slave-trade, the men engaged in the slave-trade between the states pass without condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable.Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. 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, a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country.Fellow-citizens! 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