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. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you. WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. 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 hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. This, however, did not answer the purpose. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. 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. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. We are called upon to prove that we are men. They inhabit all our Southern States. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. I will not equivocate. The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. 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. 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. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. 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. WebFrederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) O! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. 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? 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, I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. Follow the drove to New Orleans. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. 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. Frederick Douglass: (02:13) All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation a religion, a church, and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. 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. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. It is, however, a notable fact that, while so much execration is poured out by Americans upon those engaged in the foreign slave-trade, the men engaged in the slave-trade between the states pass without condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) Web" was a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and toallrights in this republic, the rights of God included! To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! What? The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. Born to an enslaved family in 1818, Frederick Douglass never knew his actual birthday, a fact not uncommon for those enslaved. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? 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. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! The Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I repeat, I am glad this is so. You know what is a swine-drover? 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. The time for such argument is passed. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. will be found by Americans. Fellow-citizens! 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. You may well cherish the memory of such men. 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.. Frederick Douglass: (08:30) Its quite a remarkable speech as Douglass in a way reenacts his own journey in appreciation for the work that Lincoln did, not just for blacks, but for whites in this country. 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. Space is comparatively annihilated. Nobody doubts it. His own testimony is nothing. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! 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. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! Of this fundamental work, this day is the 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 ofHimby whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teachthat we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. 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. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. 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. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. 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! He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Who can reason on such a proposition? 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, . Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. I will use the severest language I can command. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! Go search where you will. 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. 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. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. Americans! They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. 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 shall not be charged with slandering Americans, if I say I think the American side of any question may be safely left in American hands. 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. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? Where these are, man is not sacred. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? 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. These rules are well established. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. 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. Towards the end of They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. They were great in their day and generation. 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. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. Many of you understand them better than I do. 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. 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 Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? 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. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. 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. The propriety of the nation must be startled. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) Let this damning fact be perpetually told. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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! But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. 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 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. One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the American church towards the anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in England towards a similar movement in that country. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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. 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 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? My soul sickens at the sight. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) Extend your content reach and maximize your engagement rates. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. 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? Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it. The time was when such could be done. They, that can, may. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Read the full text below of the sage words from one of the greatest orators of all time. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. 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. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. 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. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. I must mourn. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. Yet they persevered. The oath of any two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of slavery! A RESTful API to access Revs workforce of fast, high quality transcriptionists and captioners. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) 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.