The din of business, too, is hushed. Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when he declared that There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.. Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. 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. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. 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. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. 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. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? 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. I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have I have detained my audience entirely too long already. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. 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 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. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. His own testimony is nothing. 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. What? 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. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! They inhabit all our Southern States. When the dogs in your streets, 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, thenwill I argue with you that the slave is a man! You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? Fellow-citizens! The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. 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. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. You know what is a swine-drover? 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. Frederick Douglass: (03:37) Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. 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. But I fancy, I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression upon the public mind. 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 How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! They, that can, may. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! Then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful? This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. 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. 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. Sign up for NewsOne's email newsletter! Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God. In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: Th oppressd shall vilely bend the knee. 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 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.. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. Suicide Note Revealed After Shocking Death, Mississippi Cops Beat, Waterboarded Handcuffed Black Men, Shot 1 For Dating White Women': Lawyers, Indicted! 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. The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. WebAn excerpt from the 1847 Frederick Douglass speech given for the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. 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, Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. 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. 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. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. Is that a question for Republicans? There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. The propriety of the nation must be startled. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? 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. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa! Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. Speech Transcript Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. A RESTful API to access Revs workforce of fast, high quality transcriptionists and captioners.
Frederick Douglass Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. 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! The text of Frederick Douglasss most famous speech, given in 1852, What, to a slave, is the Fourth of July? A chapter describing Douglasss early encounters with abolitionists, from his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom, 1857. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. All Rights Reserved. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. You have already declared it. 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. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Frederick Douglass: (06:44) 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! From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. How unlike the politicians of an hour! The slave holders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglasss life and the evolution of his thought in this period. Short bio of Frederick Douglass The Frederick Douglass Papers Library of Congress 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! Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. welcome anything! WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. 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. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. Would you argue more and denounce less? You were under the British Crown. 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. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. 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? 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.
Speech There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now.
Frederick Douglass Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. You live and must die, and you must do your work. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. 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? The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! There is blasphemy in the thought. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. 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.
Speech 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. There is blasphemy in the thought. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence.
A Nation's Story: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. 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. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. Travel through South America. 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. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. 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. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. They were great in their day and generation. But now is the time, the important time. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. 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. 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.
Frederick Douglass The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Whether we turn to the declarations of the past or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. 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? Many of you understand them better than I do. 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. 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. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. 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. 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. 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.
Speech Oh! I am not that man. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully 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! To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. Frederick Douglass: (10:31) No, I will not. We are called upon to prove that we are men. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a social reformer and advocate, abolitionist, orator, writer, minister, and statesman. Is slavery among them? As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. 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. Its the news, without the news.
What, to the American Slave, Is Your When Douglass delivered his famous The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" They that can, may; I cannot. One of the parts of the speech that resonates with me the most is when Douglass says: What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? And the conscience of the nation must be roused. Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student. Though a biting That he is the rightful owner of his own body? I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. 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. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city.
VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. Who can reason on such a proposition? WATCH VIDEO: Should Black Americans Celebrate Independence Day? we wept when we remembered Zion. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slaves redemption from his chains. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground formen. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. 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, . Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, iswrong? 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? 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. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. I must mourn. 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. 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. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? Frederick Douglass: (02:57) Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. Mark them! By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny, and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke, put together, have done! 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! Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Oppression makes a wise man mad.
Frederick Douglass' Descendants Read His Famous For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. 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. To do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of 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! What, then, remains to be argued? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is neither. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? 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.
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