They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! 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 ions, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. 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: This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations Jubilee when the chains of servitude have been torn from his limbs? May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. 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. 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. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow.
VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' I will use the severest language I can command. 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. I am not included within the pales of this glorious anniversary. 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? Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. 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. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Under Title 17 U.S.C. Is slavery among them? 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. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 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. But, such is not the state of the case. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. 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!
"The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass This 4th of July is yours, not mine. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? 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, andnota vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. 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. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Yea! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? be warned! 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. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. 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. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. We are called upon to prove that we are men. 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. 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.
Celebrating Frederick Douglass through Transcription Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. 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 burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. In the deep still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead heavy footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who 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, andlet the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! Frederick Douglass: (10:31) 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.. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped.
Frederick Douglass The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Fellow-citizens! 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. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. 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. WebOn December 3, 1860, Frederick Douglass and a group of fellow abolitionists met at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston for a discussion centered around the following The feeling of the nation must be quickened. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. 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. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted Liberty, an unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. Would you persuade more and rebuke less? Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. 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. There is not a nation of the earth, guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Mark them! These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. 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. That year will come, and freedoms reign. 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. They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you.
Speech Frederick Douglass: (06:03) The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. 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. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? I cannot.
Frederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) Standing here identified with the American bondsmen, making his wrongs mine. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select. WebFrederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) O! 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. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. My soul sickens at the sight. With them, nothing was settled that was not right. 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. Speech Transcript Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze.
1883 Speech by Frederick Douglass - accessible-archives.com your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. Extend your content reach and maximize your engagement rates. Space is comparatively annihilated. In the language of Isaiah, the American church might be well addressed, Bring no more vain ablations; incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! The time was when such could be done. 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). Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman.
President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? Travel through South America. 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. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. 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. Section 107, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. 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. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. 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 may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. That point is conceded already. WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects.
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? - Wikipedia I was born amid such sights and scenes. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. They, that can, may. Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. 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. 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.
speech To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. 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. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. 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. Would you argue more and denounce less?
Community Reading: Frederick Douglass's "What The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. 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? 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? Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. 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. 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. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. I am not that man. I hold that every American citizen has a right 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. welcome anything! They did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. The Bible addresses all such persons as scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe ofmint, anise,andcumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.. will be found by Americans. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. All Rights Reserved. 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. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. 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 madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even by England; but we fear the lesson is wholly lost on our present ruler. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has He can bring no witnesses for himself. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. 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 It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. 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. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. 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. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. be warned! It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices under an open and palpablebribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty,hear only his accusers! You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the meretoolsand body-guardsof the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment.
"What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Speech Transcript