To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Douglass denounces the churches for betraying their own biblical and Christian values. The drove moves tardily. His own testimony is nothing. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. [20]:344. 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. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. 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! The speech has since been published under the above title in The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One, Vol. To . Douglass then returns to the topic of the founding of the United States. 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. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. To honor Black History Month, as an introduction or review of rhetorical appeals and devices, or as a speech exemplar, this Frederick Douglass "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" rhetoric activity is a fabulous addition to any lesson. 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? Interview was lightly edited for clarity and length. Where these are, man is not sacred. [13] Although the import of people directly from Africa had been banned in 1807,[14] the domestic slave trade, still legal, was thriving. in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. 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. Because the church stood behind the decision to abolish the selling and buying of people, so did the rest of the country. ts future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorr. Frederick Douglass, a well-known Black writer, orator, and abolitionist was asked to address an anti-slavery group on the July 4 holiday in 1852. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. 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. 5.0. 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. [Throughout the speech] Douglass looks at the contradictions between the reality of slavery and the lofty claims of a just society outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. 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! In a Fourth of July holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. 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. 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. 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, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. Alison Drasner, the project coordinator for the Somerville Museum, teamed up with Dave Ortega at the Somerville Media Center to prerecord voices of 50 Somerville residents, including my 7-year-old daughter, Charlotte, to read sections of the speech. 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. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. This year is pretty challenging in the wake of COVID-19, and the event is going to be held online instead of before a live audience like we did last year. 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. I hold that every American citizen has a fight to form an opinion of the constitution, and to propagate that opinion, and to use all honorable means to make his opinion the prevailing one. Yea! They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. So its important that our city and our society are outraged by the recent murders of unarmed black people. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side; and that side, is the side of the oppressor. ROY:One of the things that Douglass writings shows us is that he believed in amplifying a variety of voices. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! Frederick Douglass, ca 1855, Metropolitan Museum of Art. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. 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. 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. They that can, may; I cannot. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. 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. The 4th of July Address, delivered in Corinthian Hall, by Frederick Douglass, is published on good paper, and makes a neat pamphlet of forty pages. was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. 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 has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. [11] Additionally, he had spoken there less than three months prior to this speech, on March 25. They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you. 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. Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Repetition Parallel structure ethos pathos Analogy Simile/Metaphor Rhetorical Question logos Part 2 - Slavery in America Fellow citizens, pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called uponto speak here today? And it also imposed severe penalties on anyone who helped enslaved people to escape. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he con signs to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. 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. Yea! He implored the Rochester, N.Y., audience to think about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday celebrating freedom. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. welcome atheism! But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. In a Fourth of July holiday special, we hear the words of Frederick Douglass. dismay. The evil that men do, lives after them, The good is oft-interred with their bones. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Over 150,000 persons were sold between 1820 and 1830, and over 300,000 were sold between 1850 and 1860.[15]. 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. 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? The 'Address' may be had at this office, price ten cents, a single copy, or six dollars per hundred. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. Students also viewed 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. [7], The Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1851. . He describes the legislation as "tyrannical," and believes that it is in "violation of justice.". If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You have already declared it. 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. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. 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. He also wrote a letter to Ida B. He can bring no witnesses for himself. How should I look to-day, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 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. Is that a question for Republicans? Youll never experience a black hole, but Avi Loeb can help you imagine one, We need individual events like reading Douglass, but we also need to be thinking about ways to extend this conversation over the long term., Level of cannabis use could determine post-op outcomes, Historian says Fla. dispute shows why AP class in African American studies is needed, Why Church Committee alums urged new House panel to avoid partisanship, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, Rewriting history to include all of it this time. The time was when such could be done. The time for such argument is passed.At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. 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. 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. You may rejoice, I must mourn. Rhetorical Analysis Of Harvey Fourth Of July. 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. 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. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are, distinctly heard on the other. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. ROY: Douglass wrote the speech in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which effectively extended the reach of slave power in the South throughout the rest of the country. But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. He praises them because they were great men. 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. 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. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. If youre not a person of color, its one thing to go to a couple of events or protests, or to read a few articles and move on. My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. 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. 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. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. What characteristics does he praise about them? The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. He faults America for utter hypocrisy and betrayal of those values in maintaining the institution of slavery. 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? Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. Americans! On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? The speech notes the contradiction of the national ethos of United States and the way enslaved persons are treated. 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. 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. The audience must fulfill what the founders of the country advocated. 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. 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. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul! "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. 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. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders 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. Douglass says that if the residents of America believe that slaves are "men",[20]:342 they should be treated as such. 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. Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July. That point is conceded already. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers. [26] After the Civil War, Douglass said that "we" had achieved a great thing by gaining American independence during the American Revolutionary War, though he said it was not as great as what was achieved by the Civil War. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. Douglass argues that religion is the center of the problem but also the main solution to it. 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. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and to all rights in this republic, the rights of God included! Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. 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". 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. 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. Great Britain, and many other countries of that time, had already abolished slavery from its territories. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. 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. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. The fundamental law, that which controls all others, may ; I can not that is... Of his slaves forget her cunning begin with the words of Frederick Douglass delivered his speech., dependent on them for bread ; but of this, scorching irony, convincing... Can, may ; I can not 300,000 were sold between 1850 and 1860. [ ]. Law, that which controls all others Constitution does not permit slavery, and the fight to what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation... 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