In the text it states, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave- we are called upon to prove that we are men? (Douglas 763). They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. On July 5, 1852, eminent African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a brilliant speech to nearly six hundred people filling Rochester, New Yorks Corinthian Hall, as organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! Towards the end of In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. Sydney Smith tells us that men seldom eulogize the wisdom and virtues of their fathers, but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. There is blasphemy in the thought. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. will be found by Americans. He can bring no witnesses for himself. 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. 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! I leave, therefore, the great deeds of your fathers to other gentlemen whose claim to have been regularly descended will be less likely to be disputed than mine! You know what is a swine-drover? In the deep still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead heavy footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge for the fatherless; plead for the widow., The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in connection with its ability to abolish slavery. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. 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 so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations Jubilee when the chains of servitude have been torn from his limbs? 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. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. Go search where you will. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. 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 and write. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. In a very telling sign, the fateful words of Frederick Douglass from a speech he delivered 170 years ago still resonate very much in 2022 as Black people in America continue the fight for the same kind of equality that the legendary abolitionist was demanding back in the mid-19th century. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. WebIn this speech, Frederick Douglass reflected on how the outpouring of joy at the conclusion of the Civil War turned to mourning with Lincolns assassination. But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. Space is comparatively annihilated. The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . How unlike the politicians of an hour! 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. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. 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. there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. Fair use is permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? 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? They are plain, common-sense rules, such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply, without having passed years in the study of law. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. 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. All Rights Reserved. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted Liberty, an unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. Yea! They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? His death, according to Douglass was not only tragic, but also prevented recently freed slaves and African Americans from gaining the ear of wise and well-intentioned leader. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! 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. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations history the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. 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. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide 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. Oh! 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. 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 We need the storm. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. welcome atheism! Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. 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! I must mourn. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globeand it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? As the sheet anchor takes a firmer hold, when the ship is tossed by the storm, so did the cause of your fathers grow stronger, as it breasted the chilling blasts of kingly displeasure. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. WebOn December 3, 1860, Frederick Douglass and a group of fellow abolitionists met at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston for a discussion centered around the following welcome anything! With them, nothing was settled that was not right. 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. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. 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 palpablebribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty,hear only his accusers! You have already declared it. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you. Transcript Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? With head, and heart, and hand Ill strive, 8 Times Obama Showed Trump How Presidents Are Supposed To Celebrate The Fourth Of July, Welcome To The Cookout: 10 Lit Movies To Watch During July Fourth Holiday Weekend, 'Dilbert' Comic Creator Calls Black People A 'Hate Group,' Urges Segregation So Whites Can 'Escape', Bernie Mac Show Star Camille Winbush Is Not Ashamed Of Joining OnlyFans, Kyle Rittenhouse Faces 2nd Civil Lawsuit, Continues To Beg For Money From His Supporters, Ben Stein's 'Aunt Jemima' Rant Is A Master Class On White Privilege, Why Did tWitch Kill Himself? your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African I doubt if there be another nation on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. They have all been taught in your common schools, narrated at your firesides, unfolded from your pulpits, and thundered from your legislative halls, and are as familiar to you as household words. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. be warned! Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. Is it not astonishing that while we are plowing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metal of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold, that while we are reading, writing, and ciphering acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers that we are engaged in all the enterprises, common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planting, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all confessing and worshiping the Christian God and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave. 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. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Web"The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass, January 9, 1894 Friends and Fellow Citizens : No man should come before an audience like the one by whose presence I am now honored, without a noble object and a fixed and earnest purpose. Its the news, without the news. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. 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 the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. If I do forget, if I do not remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, may my right hand forget her cunning and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. 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. Frederick Douglass: (06:44) This 4th of July is yours, not mine. What, then, remains to be argued? While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? At the time of the delivery of this speech, Douglass had been living in Rochester, New York for several years editing a weekly abolitionist newspaper. He was invited to give a fourth of July speech by the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester. In the early 1850s, tensions over slavery were high across the county. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? 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. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. 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? It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. Travel through South America. Fellow-citizens! The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. Frederick Douglass: (10:31) A RESTful API to access Revs workforce of fast, high quality transcriptionists and captioners. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. There are 72 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 these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. I repeat, I am glad this is so. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. 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. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. O! 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. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. No, I will not. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. Nobody doubts 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. Speech Transcript Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? 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. You may rejoice. The anti-slavery movementtherewas not an anti-church movement, for the reason that the church took its full share in prosecuting that movement: and the anti-slavery movement in this country will cease to be an anti-church movement, when the church of this country shall assume a favorable, instead of a hostile position towards that movement. I will not excuse. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. Nobody doubts it. 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 think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have 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.
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