WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. Oppression makes a wise man mad. You profess to believe that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth, and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own. Who can reason on such a proposition? No, I will not. To do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. welcome anything! President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globeand it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. 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. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. Is it at the gateway? 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. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. 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. 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. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. we wept when we remembered Zion. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. Fellow-citizens! It is not that pure and undefiled religion which is from above, and which is first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,without partiality, and without hypocrisy. But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains,stay there; and to the oppressor,oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man. Frederick Douglass: (01:08) The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. On the 2d of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. If I do forget, if I do not remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, may my right hand forget her cunning and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Born to an enslaved family in 1818, Frederick Douglass never knew his actual birthday, a fact not uncommon for those enslaved. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. I will show you a man-drover. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. 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 The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. The propriety of the nation must be startled. Yet they persevered. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? 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. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout We have Washington toour father. Alas! Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. Fromwhat quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. 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. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. 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. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? 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. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. But I admit, where all is plain, there is nothing to be argued. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. Where these are, man is not sacred. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. 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. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slaves point of view. 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. 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. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! This, however, did not answer the purpose. 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. They inhabit all our Southern States. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? 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. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. 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. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. 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! It is neither. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. Suicide Note Revealed After Shocking Death, Mississippi Cops Beat, Waterboarded Handcuffed Black Men, Shot 1 For Dating White Women': Lawyers, Indicted! I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. 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. 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. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. 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 The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. be warned! The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests. Would you persuade more and rebuke less? 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. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. 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, Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. You have already declared it. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. 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. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. 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. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! Is it not astonishing that while we are plowing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metal of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold, that while we are reading, writing, and ciphering acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers that we are engaged in all the enterprises, common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planting, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all confessing and worshiping the Christian God and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority ofHimby whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teachthat we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. 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! It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. Go search where you will. Would you argue more and denounce less? No! With them, nothing was settled that was not right. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. All Rights Reserved. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. 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. What? 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. 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 scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. 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? Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a social reformer and advocate, abolitionist, orator, writer, minister, and statesman. 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! The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. 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. 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.
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