The Act also denied suspected slaves trial by jury or even the ability to testify on their own behalf in court. My soul sickens at the sight. 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. 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 American slave, is your 4th of July? [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]. 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. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. To . Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. . The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? Random House. Stauffer, John. He wrote and presented a speech that challenged . An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he con signs to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. 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. [19]. Summary: "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" In "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?", otherwise known as "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," Frederick Douglassoutlines a careful argument against the institution of slavery and more specifically the Fugitive Slave Act. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. 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. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers. Another remarkable thing about Douglass is that he was an early champion of voting rights for women. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.I have detained my audience entirely too long already. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work The downfall of slavery. 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. It is said that America is built on the idea of liberty and freedom, but Douglass tells his audience that more than anything, it is built on inconsistencies and hypocrisies that have been overlooked for so long they appear to be truths. As the project scholar, my role is to advise the process as it rolls out, to give a talk that provides contemporary and historical context and to facilitate the community discussion around the speech against the backdrop of other relevant issues. [5] Many copies of one section of it, beginning in paragraph 32, have been circulated online. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! Douglass denounces the churches for betraying their own biblical and Christian values. The Oratory of Fr. The inaugural meeting between six women took place in Corinthian Hall on August 20. "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. 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. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. 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. the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles. He praises them because they were great men. Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglass's life and the evolution of his thought in this period. or is it in the temple? welcome atheism! By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. 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? Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. 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. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.But, such is not the state of the case. 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. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Douglass builds his argument by using surprising contrasts, plain facts, and provocative antithesis. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. 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. 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. You profess to believe that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth, and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.What, then, remains to be argued? 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. 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. 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. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. He celebrates the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England.[18]. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. 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. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. He also wrote a letter to Ida B. Douglass then returns to the topic of the founding of the United States. You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the mere tools and body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. 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. The time was when such could be done. Ossie DavisA Voice Ringing O'er the Gale! And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. [8] Frederick Douglass had moved to Rochester in 1847 in order to publish his newspaper The North Star. 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? His own testimony is nothing. in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! 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. What will this years event be like? The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. 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. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness.The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. 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. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. But now is the time, the important time. 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. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? [11] Additionally, he had spoken there less than three months prior to this speech, on March 25. [12], According to the 1850 Census, there were around 3.2 million enslaved persons in the United States. (3) $3.99. They that can, may; I cannot. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? 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. Is that a question for Republicans? If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? Great for your high school American Literature class. Douglass equates this to being worse than many other things that are banned, in particular, books and plays that are banned for infidelity. 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