Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. The speech notes the contradiction of the national ethos of United States and the way enslaved persons are treated. Panel on dispossession of African Americans says burying truth keeps Black Americans dispossessed, Legal scholar and historian puts the push to remove Confederate statues in context, Members of the community share memories, plans, hopes for the holiday, Quantum computing simulation reveals possible wormhole-like dynamics. that it should be so; yet so it is. The well-known speech was previously known as The Meaning of July the Fourth for the Negro. Later, the speech was re-titled based on Douglasss question, What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?. [11] Additionally, he had spoken there less than three months prior to this speech, on March 25. 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. 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. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act had passed Congress as part of the broader Compromise of 1850. Easel Activity. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. 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. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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.. Because the church stood behind the decision to abolish the selling and buying of people, so did the rest of the country. Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. [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. 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! 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. 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. ts future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorr. 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. [Throughout the speech] Douglass looks at the contradictions between the reality of slavery and the lofty claims of a just society outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It is not that pure and undefiled religion which is from above, and which is first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains, stay there; and to the oppressor, oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man. The British accomplished this through religion or more specifically, the church. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. 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. We need individual events like reading Douglass, but we also need to be thinking about ways to extend this conversation over the long term. Douglass then discusses the internal slave trade in America. 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. You have already declared it. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. Products. [12], According to the 1850 Census, there were around 3.2 million enslaved persons in the United States. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! 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. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. Summary of Part 1:In part one of the speech "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July", Fredrick Douglass. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. 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. [16][17] Finally, the Act did not allow the accused individual of defending themselves in court. 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. [13] Although the import of people directly from Africa had been banned in 1807,[14] the domestic slave trade, still legal, was thriving. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion.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. 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. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! 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. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. My soul sickens at the sight. 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. He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders of the institution. Douglass then pivots to the present, stating that "We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future". Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! He says that, if anything, many churches actually stand behind slavery and support the continued existence of the institution. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. You may rejoice, I must mourn. 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. The country can progress like it has before, transforming from being a colony of a far-away king to an independent nation. To honor Black History Month, as an introduction or review of rhetorical appeals and devices, or as a speech exemplar, this Frederick Douglass "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" rhetoric activity is a fabulous addition to any lesson. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he con signs to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. You know what is a swine-drover? Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? 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. What will this years event be like? Oh! He had delivered a series of seven lectures about slavery there in the winter of 185051. He also wrote a letter to Ida B. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. 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. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. 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. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. 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. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. I am not that man. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations historythe very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. He took action to raise the voices of others and to aid their work on the national stage, especially that of two Black women in the last half of the 19th century. 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