I shall not be charged with slandering Americans, if I say I think the American side of any question may be safely left in American hands. 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. Is slavery among them? That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. Nobody doubts it. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. When Douglass delivered his famous 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 reminded readers. had I the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. As with rivers so with nations. Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. welcome anything! 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 were under the British Crown. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. He can bring no witnesses for himself. 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. Search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. The drove moves tardily. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. 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. When Douglass delivered his famous The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. You know what is a swine-drover? 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. 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. we wept when we remembered Zion. Would you persuade more and rebuke less? Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. 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. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. WebIn December 1860, the great American orator and former slave Frederick Douglass delivered one of his finest speeches, A Plea for Free Speech in Boston. In it, he boldly declared that liberty is meaningless where the right to utter ones thoughts and Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. I cannot. 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. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globeand it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. We thank you for taking the time to watch this community reading of Frederick Douglasss What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Source: Blight, David. Born to an enslaved family in 1818, Frederick Douglass never knew his actual birthday, a fact not uncommon for those enslaved. 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. In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the South; I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. 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. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) If I do forget, if I do not 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. 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. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. 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 palpablebribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty,hear only his accusers! speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglasss life and the evolution of his thought in this period. Short bio of Frederick Douglass The Frederick Douglass Papers Library of Congress 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. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory. My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. 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. 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. 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. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. 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. 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. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. that it should be so; yet so it is. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. Follow the drove to New Orleans. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! They inhabit all our Southern States. There is blasphemy in the thought. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. 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. Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right, ought to be free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved.. What, then, remains to be argued? My soul sickens at the sight. Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. 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. Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds; and that they do not do this involves them in the most awful responsibility of which the mind can conceive. When the dogs in your street, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea and the reptiles that crawl shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then I will argue with you that the slave is a man. The time for such argument is past. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the American church towards the anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in England towards a similar movement in that country. You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose, aseventh partof the inhabitants of your country. I am not included within the pales of this glorious anniversary. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cumin abridge the right to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when he declared that There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has 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. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. 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. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. But, to proceed. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. welcome atheism! The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. Mark them! had I the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, Frederick Douglass: (06:03) The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. 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. Many of you understand them better than I do. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. 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. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? The country was poor in the munitions of war. 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. A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. WebOn December 3, 1860, Frederick Douglass and a group of fellow abolitionists met at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston for a discussion centered around the following 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.. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. 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 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. Speech Transcript It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. 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 hypocrisy a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) I was born amid such sights and scenes. WATCH VIDEO: Should Black Americans Celebrate Independence 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. You may rejoice. Many of its most eloquent Divines. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! There are 72 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 these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. That year will come, and freedoms reign. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you. The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. Space is comparatively annihilated. Frederick Douglass, circa 1879. Difference between Rittenhouse and McMichael-Bryan verdicts? 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. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion. 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. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Frederick Douglass: (10:31) WebAn excerpt from the 1847 Frederick Douglass speech given for the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. I am not that man. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror. He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. These rules are well established. 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. 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. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. Your President, your Secretary of State, ourlords,nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. Read the full text below of the sage words from one of the greatest orators of all time. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. 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. 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. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. 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 and write. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement.