They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I cannot. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. 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. 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. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. 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! It is fashionable to do so; but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried mens souls. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. 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. be warned! 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. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. No, I will not. Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. 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.
The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. But now is the time, the important time. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" What would be thought of an instrument, drawn up, legally drawn up, for the purpose of entitling the city of Rochester to a track of land, in which no mention of land was made? They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. You have already declared it.
Frederick Douglass Fellow-citizens! The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. 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 feeling of the nation must be quickened. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) 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. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? Web" was a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. WebFrederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) O! Is slavery among them? His own testimony is nothing. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. These rules are well established. 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. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it.
speech That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. Its the news, without the news. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations history the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny.
Oration by Frederick Douglass, delivered on the occasion of the They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. I repeat, I am glad this is so. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct.
Speech 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. 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, . I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. 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. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. 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. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic.
Our Composite Nation: Frederick Douglass America The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. Read the full text below of the sage words from one of the greatest orators of all time. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. Morel is right that the 1876 speech by Frederick Douglass is remarkable and masterful. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. You could instruct me in regard to them. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. Oh! In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. This, however, did not answer the purpose. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) that it should be so; yet so it is. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. They that can, may; I cannot. But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. 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. I will not. He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. 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. 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. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. 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, The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. 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. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. 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. Frederick Douglass: (01:08) I am not that man. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. 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. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. 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. Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. 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. 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. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? 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. 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.. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and the appellation, probably, conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to some of our old politicians. 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. The manhood of the slave is conceded. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril.