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! 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. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. 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. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. All Rights Reserved. Is slavery among them? Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. I was born amid such sights and scenes. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will in the name of humanity, which is outraged in the name of Liberty, which is fettered in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon dare to call and question and to denounce with all the emphasis I can command everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? It is carried on in all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every year, by dealers in this horrid traffic. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. welcome atheism! What then remains to be argued? Frederick Douglass: (00:26) As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent How should I look today in the presence of Americans dividing and subdividing, a discourse to show that men have a natural right to freedom speaking of it, relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. 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. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. To do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. 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, . In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African 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. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. The time for such argument is past. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. WebFrederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) O! It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. He can bring no witnesses for himself. My soul sickens at the sight. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Go search where you will. 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. we wept when we remembered Zion. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. You have already declared it. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a social reformer and advocate, abolitionist, orator, writer, minister, and statesman. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery the great sin and shame of America! Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. 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, For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globeand it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? You may well cherish the memory of such men. These rules are well established. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. 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. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. 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. 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.. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. 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. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. 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. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. 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. Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student. Who can reason on such a proposition? 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. 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. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. 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. 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! 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. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. All Rights Reserved. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. You have already declared it. As with rivers so with nations. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. Its deeply moving to hear Douglass defend the honor of Black soldiers in his 1863 speech, The Proclamation And a Negro Army, read by Colman Domingo, while his final speech, 1894s Lessons of the Hour, lays out the crucial steps toward achieving equality that have yet to be followed today.The actor selected to read these words is Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. The propriety of the nation must be startled. 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.. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! 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 use the severest language I can command. I repeat, I am glad this is so. I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. or is it in the temple? There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. With them, nothing was settled that was not right. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 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 anti-slavery movementtherewas not an anti-church movement, for the reason that the church took its full share in prosecuting that movement: and the anti-slavery movement in this country will cease to be an anti-church movement, when the church of this country shall assume a favorable, instead of a hostile position towards that movement. Then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful? Sydney Smith tells us that men seldom eulogize the wisdom and virtues of their fathers, but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own. 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. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. We need the storm. You know what is a swine-drover? who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. You may rejoice, I must mourn.. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. 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. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. They inhabit all our Southern States. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. Americans! The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a threepenny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard-earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers of your country. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. Speech Transcript Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? I am not that man. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. 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 Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. 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? 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. 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. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. 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. The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? No! 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. 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. 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. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests. 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! The subject has been handled with masterly power by Lysander Spooner, Esq., by William Goodell, by Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., and last, though not least, by Gerritt Smith, Esq. There are 72 crimes in the state of Virginia, which if committed by a black man, no matter how ignorant he be, subject him to the punishment of death, while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment. Sign up for NewsOne's email newsletter! The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. 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. 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. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Let this damning fact be perpetually told. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. This, however, did not answer the purpose. 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 If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. 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 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. In a very telling sign, the fateful words of Frederick Douglass from a speech he delivered 170 years ago still resonate very much in 2022 as Black people in America continue the fight for the same kind of equality that the legendary abolitionist was demanding back in the mid-19th century. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. Many of its most eloquent Divines. Your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your shouts of Liberty and equality, hallow mocked, your prayers and hymns your sermons and Thanksgivings with all your religious parade in solemnity are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, a thin veil to cover up crimes, which would disgrace a nation of savages. had I the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. 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. 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! As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. 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. Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cumin abridge the right to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. I lived on Philpot Street, Fells Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves, the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. Frederick Douglass: (08:30) Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? 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! The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. will be found by Americans. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. 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. This truth is not a doubtful one. Nobody doubts it. 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. 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. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. 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. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) 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. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. 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. 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. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge for the fatherless; plead for the widow., The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in connection with its ability to abolish slavery. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. But, to proceed. 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?