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 slavery the great sin and shame of America! Many of its most eloquent Divines. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. I will not excuse. Like our content? It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. 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. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. 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? Fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains heavy and grievous yesterday are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. 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. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? Let this damning fact be perpetually told. we wept when we remembered Zion. What, then, remains to be argued? From police shootings to the wage gap to crippling stereotypes (and everything in between), there are too many parallels today with what Douglass described in his speech to white America, including this relevant line: This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. 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. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. 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. The madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even by England; but we fear the lesson is wholly lost on our present ruler. 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. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. 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. Oh, had I, the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would today pour out a fiery steam of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. 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, thenwill I argue with you that the slave is a man! The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. 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. 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 crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. I will use the severest language I can command. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. You have already declared it. Frederick Douglass: (09:38) 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. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. Is it that slavery is not divine, that God did not establish it, that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, newspaper publisher, and respected abolitionist. He can bring no witnesses for himself. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: 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. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. They inhabit all our Southern States. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. 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! What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the American church towards the anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in England towards a similar movement in that country. 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. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. 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 hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. 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? This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people 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? Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? There is blasphemy in the thought. You may rejoice. When Douglass delivered his famous The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 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. 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. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. During Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, iswrong? It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. Its deeply moving to hear Douglass defend the honor of Black soldiers in his 1863 speech, The Proclamation And a Negro Army, read by Colman Domingo, while his final speech, 1894s Lessons of the Hour, lays out the crucial steps toward achieving equality that have yet to be followed today.The actor selected to read these words is But I fancy, I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression upon the public mind. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. Speech-to-Text API for pre-recorded audio, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition engine. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. 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. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; buthow, we ask, could such a thing be done? The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. 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, Discover why Rev is the #1 speech-to-text service in the world. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. 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. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you. But, such is not the state of the case. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? Frederick Douglass: (00:26) be warned! We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. When the dogs in your street, 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 I will argue with you that the slave is a man. a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nations bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic;for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, andlet the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. Fellow-citizens! The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. Fromwhat quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? WebOn January 9, 1894, at Washington, D.C.'s, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Frederick Douglass delivered his "The Lessons of the Hour" speech, which addressed the Mark them! If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. Frederick Douglass, circa 1879. Difference between Rittenhouse and McMichael-Bryan verdicts? 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. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. The time for such argument is passed. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. 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 did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Who can reason on such a proposition? Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! WebFrederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) O! I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slaves redemption from his chains. But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. Is it at the gateway? I was born amid such sights and scenes. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slaves point of view. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose, aseventh partof the inhabitants of your country. 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. 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! His own testimony is nothing. But now is the time, the important time. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. The din of business, too, is hushed. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. You have already declared it. They, that can, may. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. 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 hypocrisy a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. will be found by Americans. But, to proceed. Towards the end of Frederick Douglass: (07:35) I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. 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 I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. 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. He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. 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. 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 burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. 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. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. The oath of any two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of slavery! The time for such argument is past. I am not included within the pales of this glorious anniversary. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. I will not equivocate. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. 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. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. WebOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Douglass was a powerful As with rivers so with nations. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. 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. But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? 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. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. 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. Frederick Douglass: (10:31) I will show you a man-drover. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. 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. That point is conceded already. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? 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. It was, Milloy continued, a critique of a nation that claimed to hold dear the principles of freedom, justice and equality even as it enslaved black people.. Section 107, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. That year will come, and freedoms reign. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. 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! For who is there so cold that a nation sympathy cannot warm him, who so adore it and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? All Rights Reserved. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! From police shootings to the wage gap to crippling stereotypes (and everything in between), there are too many parallels today with what Douglass described in his speech to white America, including this relevant line.
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