They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion.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. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July by Frederick Douglass annotation? ROY:One of the things that Douglass writings shows us is that he believed in amplifying a variety of voices. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Douglass, Frederick, ed. 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. The speech 'What to the Slaves is the Fourth of July' projected the American Day of Independence from a slave's point of view and brought to light the horrific experiences of slavery. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. I will show you a man-drover. or is it in the temple? As with rivers so with nations. [28][29] The head of the organization responsible for the memorial speculated that it was vandalized in response to the removal of Confederate monuments in the wake of the George Floyd protests.[30]. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Rhetorical Analysis Of Harvey Fourth Of July. 2. 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. What is now known as the "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? These rules are well established. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul! Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. 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. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. As the sheet anchor takes a firmer hold, when the ship is tossed by the storm, so did the cause of your fathers grow stronger, as it breasted the chilling blasts of kingly displeasure. I am not that man. Keidrick Roy, the host of the virtual reading event. 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? By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. 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? I will not. He took action to raise the voices of others and to aid their work on the national stage, especially that of two Black women in the last half of the 19th century. The founding fathers left black people and women out of these rights for "everyone." 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. (3) $3.99. be warned! These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers. Is it at the gateway? 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. The speech has since been published under the above title in The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One, Vol. 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. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. official permission or approval. During the Civil War, Douglass said that since Massachusetts had been the first state to join the Patriot cause during the American Revolutionary War, black men should go to Massachusetts to enlist in the Union Army. 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. 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. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. 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. 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.I was born amid such sights and scenes. 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. 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. 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. 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. Yea! I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! 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 of Him by whom the professed to he called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teach that we ought to obey mans law before the law of God.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. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. 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. 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. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. The 4th of July Address, delivered in Corinthian Hall, by Frederick Douglass, is published on good paper, and makes a neat pamphlet of forty pages. To . 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. Is slavery among them? when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? 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 or to write. It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) the internal slave trade. It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. In this collection, students will review the life of Frederick Douglass and learn about one of his most famous speeches, "The Meaning of Fourth of July for the Negro" (it is also commonly referred to as "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July). Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. In the second part of the speech, Douglass turns to the present and his own feelings about the 4th of July . Douglass then discusses the internal slave trade in America. Cling to this daycling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight, Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline, With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. But its quite another to change the way you see yourself and to grow into a person deeply committed to long-term interracial coalition building. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. ROY: Douglass wrote the speech in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which effectively extended the reach of slave power in the South throughout the rest of the country. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. 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. 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. But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly. They find common ground in Houghton Library exhibition. 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. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. [19]. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. The evil that men do, lives after them, The good is oft-interred with their bones. The manhood of the slave is conceded. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. The 'Address' may be had at this office, price ten cents, a single copy, or six dollars per hundred. 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. 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.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.At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness. [20]:346 To prove evidence of these inconsistencies, as one historian noted, during the speech Douglass claims that the United States Constitution is an abolitionist document and not a pro-slavery document.[22][23][24]. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a by word to a mocking earth. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! The time for such argument is passed.At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. 2003. But now is the time, the important time. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated, Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cumin. 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. Youll never experience a black hole, but Avi Loeb can help you imagine one, We need individual events like reading Douglass, but we also need to be thinking about ways to extend this conversation over the long term., Level of cannabis use could determine post-op outcomes, Historian says Fla. dispute shows why AP class in African American studies is needed, Why Church Committee alums urged new House panel to avoid partisanship, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, Rewriting history to include all of it this time. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. Ex-Vice-President Dallas tells us that the Constitution is an object to which no American mind can be too attentive, and no American heart too devoted. 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. Is slavery among them? 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. He also wrote a letter to Ida B. 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. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. Because the church stood behind the decision to abolish the selling and buying of people, so did the rest of the country. He celebrates the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England.[18]. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act had passed Congress as part of the broader Compromise of 1850. [7], The Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1851. Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are, distinctly heard on the other. The audience must fulfill what the founders of the country advocated. PDF. This act forced citizens to report people who had escaped their enslavement and escaped to a free state, under punishment of a fine or imprisonment. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. To find out what elements make the speech 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. I repeat, I am glad this is so. The well-known speech was previously known as The Meaning of July the Fourth for the Negro. Later, the speech was re-titled based on Douglasss question, What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?. 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