They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. Americans! I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Further, if this demand were not complied with, another Scotland would be added to the history of religious liberty, and the stern old Covenanters would be thrown into the shade. 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. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Nobody doubts it. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. From police shootings to the wage gap to crippling stereotypes (and everything in between), there are too many parallels today with what Douglass described in his speech to white America, including this relevant line: This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? 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. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? You may well cherish the memory of such men. Travel through South America. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. Nobody doubts it. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. 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! From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, newspaper publisher, and respected abolitionist. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. be warned! 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. He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. With head, and heart, and hand Ill strive, 8 Times Obama Showed Trump How Presidents Are Supposed To Celebrate The Fourth Of July, Welcome To The Cookout: 10 Lit Movies To Watch During July Fourth Holiday Weekend, 'Dilbert' Comic Creator Calls Black People A 'Hate Group,' Urges Segregation So Whites Can 'Escape', Bernie Mac Show Star Camille Winbush Is Not Ashamed Of Joining OnlyFans, Kyle Rittenhouse Faces 2nd Civil Lawsuit, Continues To Beg For Money From His Supporters, Ben Stein's 'Aunt Jemima' Rant Is A Master Class On White Privilege, Why Did tWitch Kill Himself? Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. You will see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. Many of you understand them better than I do. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who Frederick Douglass: (06:44) What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Juneteenth Reading List: 10 Books To Learn More About Black Independence Day, Your email will be shared with newsone.com and subject to its, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, he was issuing , a scathing indictment of American hypocrisy, Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, . 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. 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. The text of Frederick Douglasss most famous speech, given in 1852, What, to a slave, is the Fourth of July? A chapter describing Douglasss early encounters with abolitionists, from his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom, 1857. That he is the rightful owner of his own body? This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. The fact that the church of our country, (with fractional exceptions), does not esteem the Fugitive Slave Law as a declaration of war against religious liberty, implies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, andnota vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? 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. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times. That year will come, and freedoms reign. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. 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. WebIn the late 1860sat a moment of great hope for the promise of equality under the lawthe famed orator and once-enslaved abolitionist Frederick Douglass took his Our Composite Nation speech on the road to argue for a plural American democracy. It was, Milloy continued, a critique of a nation that claimed to hold dear the principles of freedom, justice and equality even as it enslaved black people.. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. Follow the drove to New Orleans. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. Would you argue more and denounce less? Go search where you will. 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. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. 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. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. 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. The manhood of the slave is conceded. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. be warned! Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. 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. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Who can reason on such a proposition? His own testimony is nothing. will be found by Americans. Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. And am I therefore called upon to bring our humble offering to the national alter and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. That point is conceded already. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. You have already declared it. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. These rules are well established. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? 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. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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? The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and toallrights in this republic, the rights of God included! Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. Speech-to-Text API for pre-recorded audio, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition engine. welcome anything! 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 in sacrilegious irony. 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. WebAn excerpt from the 1847 Frederick Douglass speech given for the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. Oh! The time for such argument is passed. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. in preference to the gospel,as preached by those Divines! For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. Transcript Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. The time for such argument is past. I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. 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! They, that can, may. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most sacrilegious and shocking and would make me a reproach before God and the world. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. I repeat, I am glad this is so. Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. I am not that man. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! 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. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. You have no right to enjoy a childs share in the labor of your fathers, unless your children are to be blest by your labors. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will in the name of humanity, which is outraged in the name of Liberty, which is fettered in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon dare to call and question and to denounce with all the emphasis I can command everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America. 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. I leave, therefore, the great deeds of your fathers to other gentlemen whose claim to have been regularly descended will be less likely to be disputed than mine! R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slaves redemption from his chains. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. Who can reason on such a proposition? On the 2d of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror.
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