He is outraged by the lack of responsibility and indifference towards slavery that many sects have taken around the nation. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. 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 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation's historythe very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Nevertheless, Douglass claims that this can change. Kate Harris Date Published September 28, 2016 Last Modified November 14, 2021 Description. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? that it should be so; yet so it is. Ossie DavisA Voice Ringing O'er the Gale! I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror.Fellow-citizens, this murderous traffic is, to-day, in active operation in this boasted republic. He celebrates the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England.[18]. 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. I am also hosting a summer reading and discussion series called Race, Fragility, and Anti-Racism through the Somerville Museum and the City on a Hill network of local churches. welcome atheism! They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. ARI . when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.What, then, remains to be argued? This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. Genius is the ultimate source of music knowledge, created by scholars like you who share facts and insight about the songs and artists they love. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. 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. Random House. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shoutWe have Washington to our father.Alas! An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he con signs to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. The fact that the church of our country, (with fractional exceptions), does not esteem the Fugitive Slave Law as a declaration of war against religious liberty, implies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. Douglass believed that slavery could be eliminated with the support of the church, and also with the reexamination of what the Bible was actually saying. The manhood of the slave is conceded. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. In an 1868 speech, he said, No man should be excluded from the government on the basis of his color, no woman on account of her sex. 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. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. In that speech, he cast the abolitionist movement as being engaged in a "War" against defenders of slavery. 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. 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. 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. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? You may rejoice, I must mourn. The speech has been notably performed or read by important figures, including the following: The paragraphing referenced here is taken from an edition of the speech at, African Americans In Congress: A Documentary History, by Eric Freedman and Stephen A, Jones, 2008, p. 39, "Activist Public Relations and the Paradox of the Positive: A Case Study of Frederick Douglass's Fourth of July Address", "One of American History's Worst Laws Was Passed 165 Years Ago", "The Operation of the Fugitive Slave Law in Western Pennsylvania from 1850 to 1860", The American Constitutional Experience: Selected Readings & Supreme Court Opinions, Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings, "Frederick Douglass Statue Torn Down On Anniversary Of Famous Speech", "Frederick Douglass statue torn down in Rochester, N.Y., on anniversary of his famous Fourth of July speech", "Frederick Douglass statue torn down on anniversary of great speech", "VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' Descendants Deliver His 'Fourth Of July' Speech", A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Frederick Douglass's Descendants Deliver His 'Fourth of July' Speech, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F&oldid=1137650578. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. The audience must fulfill what the founders of the country advocated. [5], A statue of Douglass erected in Rochester in 2018 was torn down on July 5, 2020the 168th anniversary of the speech. When a sufficient number have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile, or to New Orleans. ROY:One of the things that Douglass writings shows us is that he believed in amplifying a variety of voices. 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. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. (3) $3.99. be warned! There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. According to Douglass, these inconsistencies have made the United States the object of mockery and often contempt among the various nations of the world. . Rhetorical Analysis Of Harvey Fourth Of July. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? 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. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. 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! Your President, your Secretary of State, your lords, 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. He thinks they were extremely intelligent, and the thinks it is admirable that when they realized they were oppressed by Britain, they rebelled. 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. GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. He validates the feelings of injustice the Founders felt then juxtaposes their experiences with vivid descriptions of the harshness of slavery.[21]. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. These rules are well established. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. Worksheet Excerpt Analyzing Rhetorical Devices in "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?": You know what is a swine-drover? Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. He had delivered a series of seven lectures about slavery there in the winter of 185051. 2. The Bible addresses all such persons as scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to. Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. 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, a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country.Fellow-citizens! How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are, distinctly heard on the other. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nations bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever!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.Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. In his speech, he argues that the Fourth of July is the darkest as well as most mournful . These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. 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. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. Over 150,000 persons were sold between 1820 and 1830, and over 300,000 were sold between 1850 and 1860.[15]. No! 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! Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Is that a question for Republicans? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? [11] Additionally, he had spoken there less than three months prior to this speech, on March 25. Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? The time was when such could be done. 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. 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.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. In "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Frederick Douglass sought not only to convince people of the wrongfulness of slavery but also to make abolition more acceptable to Northern whites. 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, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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. From what quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? But we also need to invest as a city and as a society into reading and learning more about the present realities of oppressed peoples. [Under the Act] it became illegal not to arrest and return runaway slaves. He wrote a glowing letter of encouragement to Harriet Tubman, which served as the preface to Sarah Bradfords 1869 biography about Tubmans life. On July 4, 1852, Frederick Douglass-- a former American slave, abolitionist leader and adroit speaker-- spoke in Rochester, New York about the affectation of celebrating independence. Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature. Summary of Part 1:In part one of the speech "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July", Fredrick Douglass. 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. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour.Fellow-citizens! Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke put together have done. 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 and sacrilegious irony. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. Alison Drasner, the project coordinator for the Somerville Museum, teamed up with Dave Ortega at the Somerville Media Center to prerecord voices of 50 Somerville residents, including my 7-year-old daughter, Charlotte, to read sections of the speech. O! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The oath of any two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of slavery! What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? Essentially, Douglass criticizes his audience's pride for a nation that claims to value freedom though it is composed of people who continuously commit atrocities against Blacks. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Rhetoricians R. L. Heath and D. Waymer refer to this as the "paradox of the positive" because it highlights how something positive and meant to be positive can also exclude individuals. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July | Historical Context The Colonial regime paved way for the transportation of slaves from different parts of the world, mostly from the African continent to work in southern states of America on cash crop plantations that generated a great source of income. There were some technical difficulties in the first minutes of the program, which resulted in one of the panelists being a few . I hold that every American citizen has a fight to form an opinion of the constitution, and to propagate that opinion, and to use all honorable means to make his opinion the prevailing one. $ 3.60. To . 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. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. 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.What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? welcome anything! On 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 orator, often traveling six months out of the year to give lectures on abolition. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? In the end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high. There should be no shoulder that does not bear the burden of the government. He had a prophetic vision for the future that he was always trying to work toward. The Oratory of Fr. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding.There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to bum their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal!And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? 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.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.In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; but how, we ask, could such a thing be done? As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appearedmen, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. 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what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation