Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. All Rights Reserved. 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. 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. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. 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. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. 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. The time for such argument is passed. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. Fair use is permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. My soul sickens at the sight. Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 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. 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. The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. That point is conceded already. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. Frederick Douglass: (09:38) Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. No! He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, newspaper publisher, and respected abolitionist. Americans! Create a better, more engaging experience for every student. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. 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. 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. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge for the fatherless; plead for the widow., The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in connection with its ability to abolish slavery. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. be warned! That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. 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. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. How unlike the politicians of an hour! In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! 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. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? 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. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. 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. What then remains to be argued? 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. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. 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? 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. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? or is it in the temple? 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. Morel is right that the 1876 speech by Frederick Douglass is remarkable and masterful. Travel through South America. In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; buthow, we ask, could such a thing be done? What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? O! Frederick Douglass: (01:08) Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. 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 manhood of the slave is conceded. They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. 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! Everywhere, in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave-trade, as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. Juneteenth Reading List: 10 Books To Learn More About Black Independence Day, Your email will be shared with newsone.com and subject to its, 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, . They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. All Rights Reserved. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. This truth is not a doubtful one. His own testimony is nothing. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted Liberty, an unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. What? I cannot. And while slavery has long been abolished and outlawed, the sentiment behind the address still applies in many unfortunate ways when it comes to the overall Black experience in America. What, then, remains to be argued? The propriety of the nation must be startled. 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. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent 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. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. You may rejoice, I must mourn.. 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. 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 The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. The din of business, too, is hushed. You live and must die, and you must do your work. Is that a question for Republicans? Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who 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. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! 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. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. Many of you understand them better than I do. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. 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. 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. Yet they persevered. Further, if this demand were not complied with, another Scotland would be added to the history of religious liberty, and the stern old Covenanters would be thrown into the shade. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the church and ministry of the country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to fight or flee. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. Where these are, man is not sacred. 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. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? WebDescription. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. 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. Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. They, that can, may. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. 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. 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. we wept when we remembered Zion. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. I must mourn. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests. My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slaves point of view. I will not excuse. 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. In a very telling sign, the fateful words of Frederick Douglass from a speech he delivered 170 years ago still resonate very much in 2022 as Black people in America continue the fight for the same kind of equality that the legendary abolitionist was demanding back in the mid-19th century. 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. 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. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. They were not the men to look back. They were great in their day and generation. It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. On July 5, 1852, eminent African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a brilliant speech to nearly six hundred people filling Rochester, New Yorks Corinthian Hall, as organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. 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.. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. 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. 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! Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. 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. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. 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, aseventh partof the inhabitants of your country. You will see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. 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! For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globeand it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? 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. I repeat, I am glad this is so. We are called upon to prove that we are men. Extend your content reach and maximize your engagement rates. Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! 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. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. 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