You may rejoice, I must mourn. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Great Britain, and many other countries of that time, had already abolished slavery from its territories. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. In his speech, "The Hypocrisy of American Slavery . According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. He is outraged by the lack of responsibility and indifference towards slavery that many sects have taken around the nation. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shoutWe have Washington to our father.Alas! 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! Douglass was a former slave of the 19th century and soon became a leader during the Abolitionist Movement. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs. I will show you a man-drover. 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? But we also need to invest as a city and as a society into reading and learning more about the present realities of oppressed peoples. [11] Additionally, he had spoken there less than three months prior to this speech, on March 25. It is neither. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. You glory in your refinement and your universal education yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful as ever stained the character of a nationa system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. He also wrote a letter to Ida B. So its important that our city and our society are outraged by the recent murders of unarmed black people. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Douglass, Frederick, ed. Douglass says that if the residents of America believe that slaves are "men",[20]:342 they should be treated as such. 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. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side; and that side, is the side of the oppressor. Table of Contents. 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. Easel Activity. by Frederick Douglass 1852 11th Grade Lexile: 1140 Font Size Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an African American social reformer, orator, and writer. He became a leader in the abolitionist movement, which sought to end the practice of slavery, before and during the Civil War. No! Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation a religion, a church, and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God. The time for such argument is passed.At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Follow the drove to New Orleans. 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. [19]. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. 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. They that can, may; I cannot. 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. 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. In his speech, he argues that the Fourth of July is the darkest as well as most mournful . It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. The British accomplished this through religion or more specifically, the church. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. or is it in the temple? We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 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. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. 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. The evil that men do, lives after them, The good is oft-interred with their bones. During the Civil War, Douglass said that since Massachusetts had been the first state to join the Patriot cause during the American Revolutionary War, black men should go to Massachusetts to enlist in the Union Army. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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 end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high. He validates the feelings of injustice the Founders felt then juxtaposes their experiences with vivid descriptions of the harshness of slavery.[21]. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. It is carried on in all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every year, by dealers in this horrid traffic. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. Another remarkable thing about Douglass is that he was an early champion of voting rights for women. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. 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. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! In short, it gave the federal government an active role in maintaining the Souths system of slavery. 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? That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. Frederick Douglass, born a slave and later the most influential African American leader of the 1800s, addresses the hypocrisy of the US of maintaining slavery with its upheld ideals being freedom and independence on July 4th, 1852. A John Knox would be seen at every church door, and heard from every pulpit, and Fillmore would have no more quarter than was shown by Knox, to the beautiful, but treacherous queen Mary of Scotland. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? In "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Frederick Douglass sought not only to convince people of the wrongfulness of slavery but also to make abolition more acceptable to Northern whites. 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. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. From what quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. 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. PDF. The country can progress like it has before, transforming from being a colony of a far-away king to an independent nation. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July by Frederick Douglass annotation? He praises them because they were great men. But the 1852 "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech remains the best known of his addresses on the occasion, especially as it became even more widely read in the late-20th century,. Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly. They find common ground in Houghton Library exhibition. The inaugural meeting between six women took place in Corinthian Hall on August 20. we wept when we remembered Zion. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. He faults America for utter hypocrisy and betrayal of those values in maintaining the institution of slavery. The Act also denied suspected slaves trial by jury or even the ability to testify on their own behalf in court. 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. Ossie DavisA Voice Ringing O'er the Gale! They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. [6] Due to this and the variant titles given to it in various places, and the fact that it is called a July Fourth Oration but was actually delivered on July 5, some confusion has arisen about the date and contents of the speech. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. 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. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select.I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it.At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. [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. 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. 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. More than 150 years later, Keidrick Roy, a doctoral student in American Studies at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a U.S. Air Force veteran, will host a virtual community reading and discussion of the storied speech at the Somerville Museum on Thursday as part of the annual state-wide MassHumanities program Reading Frederick Douglass Together.. As with rivers so with nations. 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! What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? 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 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? I will not. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? Oppression makes a wise man mad. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. 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. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. 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. 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. 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. This act forced citizens to report people who had escaped their enslavement and escaped to a free state, under punishment of a fine or imprisonment. Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God. In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July 5th, 1852. 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. 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. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. 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. 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! Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. [10] Douglass had spoken at Corinthian Hall in the past. . Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices under an open and palpable bribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty, hear only his accusers!In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. Where these are, man is not sacred. In this collection, students will review the life of Frederick Douglass and learn about one of his most famous speeches, "The Meaning of Fourth of July for the Negro" (it is also commonly referred to as "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July). The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. 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? By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Douglass declares that true freedom can not exist in America if Black people are still enslaved there and is adamant that the end of slavery is near. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Worksheet Excerpt Analyzing Rhetorical Devices in "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?": Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a by word to a mocking earth. 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. They inhabit all our Southern States. 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