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 anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. Follow the drove to New Orleans. I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have 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. I will not. 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! VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. This truth is not a doubtful one. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. The time for such argument is passed. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. 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. 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. Its the news, without the news. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa! 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, 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. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. 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. Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. 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. Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. Is that a question for Republicans? The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? 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. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? Under Title 17 U.S.C. They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. I am not that man. WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? 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. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. 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! A RESTful API to access Revs workforce of fast, high quality transcriptionists and captioners. Space is comparatively annihilated. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. 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 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.. Oh! Yet they persevered. The propriety of the nation must be startled. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. But, to proceed. WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. 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! They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. You may rejoice. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. Who can reason on such a proposition? 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. 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. 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! For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. 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. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. Oppression makes a wise man mad. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. 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! At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? We need the storm. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. I will use the severest language I can command. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Towards the end of 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. 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. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. 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. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. 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. Its deeply moving to hear Douglass defend the honor of Black soldiers in his 1863 speech, The Proclamation And a Negro Army, read by Colman Domingo, while his final speech, 1894s Lessons of the Hour, lays out the crucial steps toward achieving equality that have yet to be followed today.The actor selected to read these words is or is it in the temple? These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. You were under the British Crown. Web"The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass, January 9, 1894 Friends and Fellow Citizens : No man should come before an audience like the one by whose presence I am now honored, without a noble object and a fixed and earnest purpose. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. 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. 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. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. There is blasphemy in the thought. I will not excuse. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Frederick Douglass: (05:02) There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. 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. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. 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. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! You glory in your refinement and your universal education yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful as ever stained the character of a nation a system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) 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.
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