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. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent Go search where you will. 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. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. 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. 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.. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. 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. 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. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. No, I will not. Then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful? Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. How should I look today in the presence of Americans dividing and subdividing, a discourse to show that men have a natural right to freedom speaking of it, relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 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. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. 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. Space is comparatively annihilated. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. In the text it states, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave- we are called upon to prove that we are men? (Douglas 763). I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have 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.. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? Frederick Douglass: (02:57) Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. 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. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. 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! WebOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Douglass was a powerful VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. I will not equivocate. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Fair use is permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. 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. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, iswrong? Travel through South America. WATCH VIDEO: Should Black Americans Celebrate Independence Day? The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. 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. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. 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. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! 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. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. 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. 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. I doubt if there be another nation on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. 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! 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. Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. 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. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. What then remains to be argued? A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . I am not included within the pales of this glorious anniversary. Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! 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. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. 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. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. The madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even by England; but we fear the lesson is wholly lost on our present ruler. 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. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? that it should be so; yet so it is. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? 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. 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. Our Composite Nation: Frederick Douglass America All Rights Reserved. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. But, to proceed. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. 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. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. 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. 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? There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. You have already declared it. 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! speech By that act, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. 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. 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. Under Title 17 U.S.C. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. 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. Is it at the gateway? But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. This, however, did not answer the purpose. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. 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.. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. 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. I cannot. Frederick Douglass It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. 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. What? They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. They, that can, may. 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. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. The slave holders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. Towards the end of He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. Is slavery among them? During 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. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. Mark them! 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. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. 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. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. The manhood of the slave is conceded. 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. It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation Babylon, whose crimes towering up to heaven with thrown down by the breadth of the almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" 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. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. 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. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! 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. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? 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. 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, Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. That point is conceded already. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. My soul sickens at the sight. To do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. 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. 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. It is neither. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. As with rivers so with nations. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. Standing here identified with the American bondsmen, making his wrongs mine. 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. My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. Frederick Douglass These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. 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, Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. 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.
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