To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Is that a question for Republicans? Yea! 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. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. We are called upon to prove that we are men. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. There is blasphemy in the thought. welcome atheism! This 4th of July is yours, not mine. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, iswrong? One of the parts of the speech that resonates with me the most is when Douglass says: What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! My soul sickens at the sight. I will show you a man-drover. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. Travel through South America. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. that it should be so; yet so it is. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. 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 meretoolsand body-guardsof the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. 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. 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. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. They were great in their day and generation. For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globeand it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. They that can, may; I cannot. 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. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. 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 ions, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? I repeat, I am glad this is so. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion. My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? The madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even by England; but we fear the lesson is wholly lost on our present ruler. WebFrederick Douglass speech Historical Document "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" 1852 Resource Bank Contents Click here for the text of this historical document. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. Morel is right that the 1876 speech by Frederick Douglass is remarkable and masterful. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground formen. 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? The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. It is neither. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. 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. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent African-American professional men in celebration of the twenty-first anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.After the toast provided by former Senator Blanche K. Bruce, 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 neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! I am not that man. You know what is a swine-drover? There is not a nation of the earth, guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. 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. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. 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. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. That point is conceded already. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and Standing here identified with the American bondsmen, making his wrongs mine. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. 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 nation a system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty. Where these are, man is not sacred. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. 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. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. All Rights Reserved. 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. That he is the rightful owner of his own body? Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. 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! They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. 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. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression.

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