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. They have all been taught in your common schools, narrated at your firesides, unfolded from your pulpits, and thundered from your legislative halls, and are as familiar to you as household words. WebFrederick Douglass speech Historical Document "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" 1852 Resource Bank Contents Click here for the text of this historical document. 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. 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. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. Fellow-citizens! From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed. Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul! Section 107, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. What then remains to be argued? 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 You may rejoice, I must mourn.. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. 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. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. 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. They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. 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. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. They are plain, common-sense rules, such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply, without having passed years in the study of law. 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! What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? 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! 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. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted Liberty, an unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity. There is blasphemy in the thought. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; 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. 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. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. 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? Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. Yet they persevered. Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? 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. Who can reason on such a proposition? The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 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. 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. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. These rules are well established. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. 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.. 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. Though a biting Its the news, without the news. Mark them! The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slaves point of view. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. With them, nothing was settled that was not right. His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills, headed CASH FOR NEGROES. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Transcript Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Frederick Douglass: (00:26) I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. WebDescription. I will show you a man-drover. It is neither. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. 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 arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. 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! A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. WATCH VIDEO: Should Black Americans Celebrate Independence Day?

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