VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave Is the Fourth 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 high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. 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. But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Frederick Douglass July Fourth Speech Full Text: Read I lived on Philpot Street, Fells Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves, the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. It is carried on in all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every year, by dealers in this horrid traffic. 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? 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 in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery the great sin and shame of America! 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. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! 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 questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. 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. 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. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. Create a better, more engaging experience for every student. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. 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. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests. There is blasphemy in the thought. The most accurate AI-powered transcription on the market. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and Is it that slavery is not divine, that God did not establish it, that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? What to the American slave is your 4th of July? 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. Fellow-citizens! 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. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. Read the full text below of the sage words from one of the greatest orators of all time. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. 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. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. All Rights Reserved. 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. 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. You may well cherish the memory of such men. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. Discover why Rev is the #1 speech-to-text service in the world. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. 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. 1883 Speech by Frederick Douglass - accessible-archives.com 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. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. 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. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Is it not astonishing that while we are plowing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metal of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold, that while we are reading, writing, and ciphering acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers that we are engaged in all the enterprises, common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planting, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all confessing and worshiping the Christian God and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave. They were great in their day and generation. 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 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. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. 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. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of. Oppression makes a wise man mad. O! I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. How unlike the politicians of an hour! 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, . That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. But I fancy, I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression upon the public mind. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select. Fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains heavy and grievous yesterday are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and sermons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling and universal interest a nations jubilee. Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. And yet not one word shall escape me that any man whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice or who is not at heart, a slaveholder shall not confess to be right and just. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. welcome anything! Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? WebAn excerpt from the 1847 Frederick Douglass speech given for the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. 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. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. To do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. 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. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. Oh, had I, the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would today pour out a fiery steam of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. Frederick Douglass speech - PBS They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. Many of you understand them better than I do. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, 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. 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. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. in preference to the gospel,as preached by those Divines! Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! 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? Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. speech Is that a question for Republicans? Yet they persevered. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. Standing here identified with the American bondsmen, making his wrongs mine. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. 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. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! Yea! 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? Who can reason on such a proposition? The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. Your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your shouts of Liberty and equality, hallow mocked, your prayers and hymns your sermons and Thanksgivings with all your religious parade in solemnity are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, a thin veil to cover up crimes, which would disgrace a nation of savages. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Speech Transcript I am not included within the pales of this glorious anniversary. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Speech Transcript This, however, did not answer the purpose. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Speech How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. Nobody doubts it. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! WebDescription. The din of business, too, is hushed. What, then, remains to be argued? I will show you a man-drover. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. 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. They inhabit all our Southern States. I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have I was born amid such sights and scenes. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. 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. 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. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. 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. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. They that can, may; I cannot. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. During Everywhere, in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave-trade, as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. 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! Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. 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. 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. Frederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) Frederick Douglass: (02:13) But, such is not the state of the case. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent His death, according to Douglass was not only tragic, but also prevented recently freed slaves and African Americans from gaining the ear of wise and well-intentioned leader. 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. I will use the severest language I can command. 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. 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. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. What then remains to be argued? Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. 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. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. we wept when we remembered Zion. Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. 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, They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. I repeat, I am glad this is so. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. 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. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity. 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 He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. And while slavery has long been abolished and outlawed, the sentiment behind the address still applies in many unfortunate ways when it comes to the overall Black experience in America. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. 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, We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. In a very telling sign, the fateful words of Frederick Douglass from a speech he delivered 170 years ago still resonate very much in 2022 as Black people in America continue the fight for the same kind of equality that the legendary abolitionist was demanding back in the mid-19th century. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. 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. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? His own testimony is nothing. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. When the dogs in your streets, 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, thenwill I argue with you that the slave is a man!