The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and Frederick Douglass: (01:08) He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. 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. The time for such argument is passed. 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. 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! No! Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. 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. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. I am not included within the pales of this glorious anniversary. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. 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. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. or is it in the temple? But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. 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. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. I will not excuse. It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. 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. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Sign up for NewsOne's email newsletter! Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! 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 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. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) 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. 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? But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Would you persuade more and rebuke less? What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. You have already declared it. What, then, remains to be argued? 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. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! 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. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christians God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men! Fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains heavy and grievous yesterday are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. 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! 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. 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. Frederick Douglass, circa 1879. Difference between Rittenhouse and McMichael-Bryan verdicts? 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. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. 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. 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. 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. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. But, to proceed. 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 It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. That point is conceded already. The most accurate AI-powered transcription on the market. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. 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 British Government persisted in the exactions complained of. 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. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. 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. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. I must mourn. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. Follow the drove to New Orleans. The din of business, too, is hushed. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. 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. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? 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. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. 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. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. With head, and heart, and hand Ill strive, 8 Times Obama Showed Trump How Presidents Are Supposed To Celebrate The Fourth Of July, Welcome To The Cookout: 10 Lit Movies To Watch During July Fourth Holiday Weekend, 'Dilbert' Comic Creator Calls Black People A 'Hate Group,' Urges Segregation So Whites Can 'Escape', Bernie Mac Show Star Camille Winbush Is Not Ashamed Of Joining OnlyFans, Kyle Rittenhouse Faces 2nd Civil Lawsuit, Continues To Beg For Money From His Supporters, Ben Stein's 'Aunt Jemima' Rant Is A Master Class On White Privilege, Why Did tWitch Kill Himself? They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. Towards the end of Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. WebFrederick Douglass speech Historical Document "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" 1852 Resource Bank Contents Click here for the text of this historical document. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! The country was poor in the munitions of war. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. The Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. The time for such argument is past. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? 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! In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. By that act, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. For who is there so cold that a nation sympathy cannot warm him, who so adore it and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? 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. Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! 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. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? 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. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! Web"The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass, January 9, 1894 Friends and Fellow Citizens : No man should come before an audience like the one by whose presence I am now honored, without a noble object and a fixed and earnest purpose. 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. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. All Rights Reserved. We thank you for taking the time to watch this community reading of Frederick Douglasss What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Source: Blight, David. WebAn excerpt from the 1847 Frederick Douglass speech given for the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. 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. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. They that can, may; I cannot. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! 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? That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! 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. The propriety of the nation must be startled. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. 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. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, 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. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. 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. What then remains to be argued? I was born amid such sights and scenes. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? Extend your content reach and maximize your engagement rates. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. How unlike the politicians of an hour! Is it that slavery is not divine, that God did not establish it, that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. 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 leave, therefore, the great deeds of your fathers to other gentlemen whose claim to have been regularly descended will be less likely to be disputed than mine! Suicide Note Revealed After Shocking Death, Mississippi Cops Beat, Waterboarded Handcuffed Black Men, Shot 1 For Dating White Women': Lawyers, Indicted! 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. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. WebIn December 1860, the great American orator and former slave Frederick Douglass delivered one of his finest speeches, A Plea for Free Speech in Boston. In it, he boldly declared that liberty is meaningless where the right to utter ones thoughts and Frederick Douglass: (07:35) 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! They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. that it should be so; yet so it is. The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. This truth is not a doubtful one.
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