By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. "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. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. 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. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Follow the drove to New Orleans. According to Douglass, these inconsistencies have made the United States the object of mockery and often contempt among the various nations of the world. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. Frederick Douglass, ca 1855, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Many of its most eloquent Divines. 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. that it should be so; yet so it is. From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed.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. My soul sickens at the sight. Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. 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. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. What is now known as the "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. I am also hosting a summer reading and discussion series called Race, Fragility, and Anti-Racism through the Somerville Museum and the City on a Hill network of local churches. His own testimony is nothing. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. So its important that our city and our society are outraged by the recent murders of unarmed black people. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. What would be thought of an instrument, drawn up, legally drawn up, for the purpose of entitling the city of Rochester to a track of land, in which no mention of land was made? To the slave, Douglass tells the audience, "your 4th of July is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license [for enslaving blacks] . [5], A statue of Douglass erected in Rochester in 2018 was torn down on July 5, 2020the 168th anniversary of the speech. 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. We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the church and ministry of the country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to fight or flee. Oppression makes a wise man mad. Assignment in book chapter School Alief Early College High School Course English language and literature (ELL2002) Uploaded by God Academic year2021/2022 Helpful? An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he con signs to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. 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 testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. But its quite another to change the way you see yourself and to grow into a person deeply committed to long-term interracial coalition building. by Frederick Douglass 1852 11th Grade Lexile: 1140 Font Size Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an African American social reformer, orator, and writer. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror.Fellow-citizens, this murderous traffic is, to-day, in active operation in this boasted republic. 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. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side; and that side, is the side of the oppressor. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. After this, he turns his attention to the church. 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. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders of the institution. What will this years event be like? 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. Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cuminabridge the fight to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? 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. 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. (1982). 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. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, the slave plantation, from which I escaped, and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you, This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. The country can progress like it has before, transforming from being a colony of a far-away king to an independent nation. Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. I am not that man. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground for men. These rules are well established. welcome atheism! In order to put an end to it, some of these last have consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa! 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. Ossie DavisA Voice Ringing O'er the Gale! Douglass then returns to the topic of the founding of the United States. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. [19]. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. 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. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? In July of 1852, Frederick Douglass prepares a speech known as The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro. 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. 4th period Mrs. Landrew Fredrick Douglass Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a prominent activist, author and public speaker. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated, Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cumin. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. Who can reason on such a proposition? 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! I will not. 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. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. He faults America for utter hypocrisy and betrayal of those values in maintaining the institution of slavery. . or is it in the temple? 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. Is it at the gateway? The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are, distinctly heard on the other. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. [5] American studies professor Andrew S. Bibby argues that because many of the editions produced for educational use are abridged, they often misrepresent Douglass's original through omission or editorial focus. Douglass says that if the residents of America believe that slaves are "men",[20]:342 they should be treated as such. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Douglass then discusses the internal slave trade in America. In spite of his praise of the Founding Fathers, he maintains that slaves owe nothing to and have no positive feelings towards the founding of the United States. in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! He also wrote a letter to Ida B. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. 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. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. 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. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. To find out what elements make the speech 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' He wrote a glowing letter of encouragement to Harriet Tubman, which served as the preface to Sarah Bradfords 1869 biography about Tubmans life. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations historythe very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Knowledge is becoming more readily available, Douglass said, and soon the American people will open their eyes to the atrocities they have been inflicting on their fellow Americans. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! A self-taught man, he escaped from slavery and eventually became a leader in the abolitionist movement. ROY: The event that were doing in Somerville puts pressure on whitewashed conceptions of the Fourth of July, as many people to this day still view it as a celebration of American food, fireworks, and freedom. 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. 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? 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 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! 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. 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. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. Space is comparatively annihilated. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen. There is blasphemy in the thought. 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. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade, as it exists, at this moment, in the ruling part of the United States.I was born amid such sights and scenes. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? On July 5, 1852, in . It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. We need individual events like reading Douglass, but we also need to be thinking about ways to extend this conversation over the long term. However, if slavery were abolished and equal rights given to all, that would no longer be the case. [20]:346 To prove evidence of these inconsistencies, as one historian noted, during the speech Douglass claims that the United States Constitution is an abolitionist document and not a pro-slavery document.[22][23][24]. Douglass details the hardships past Americans once endured when they were members of British colonies and validates their feelings of ill treatment. The anti-slavery movement there was 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 or a hostile position towards that movement. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. 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. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? He celebrates the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England.[18]. be warned! 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. 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. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Not everyone. 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. The time for such argument is passed.At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. It is neither. Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. I lived on Philpot Street, Fells Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves, the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. 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. Douglass equates this to being worse than many other things that are banned, in particular, books and plays that are banned for infidelity. 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. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. 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? 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. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! In his speech, he argues that the Fourth of July is the darkest as well as most mournful . 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." My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery." Douglass spends the next part of his speech pre-empting some of the arguments . The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. 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. There should be no shoulder that does not bear the burden of the government. He had a prophetic vision for the future that he was always trying to work toward. the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles. 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! 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! weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! He implored the Rochester, N.Y., audience to think about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday celebrating freedom. [16][17] Finally, the Act did not allow the accused individual of defending themselves in court. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. He expresses his belief in the speech that he and other slaves are fighting the same fight in terms of wishing to be free that White Americans, the ancestors of the white people he is addressing, fought seventy years earlier. Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? 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