In every clime be understood, The claims of human brotherhood, And each return for evil, good, Not blow for blow; That day will come all feuds to end, And change into a faithful friend Each foe. He concedes, however, that the main purpose of his speech is not to give praise and thanks to these men, for he says that the deeds of those patriots are well known. The real subject of his speech, he concedes, is American slavery. You may rejoice, I must mourn. Throughout this speech, as well as his life, Douglass advocated equal justice and rights, as well as citizenship, for blacks. When from their galling chains set free, Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee, And wear the yoke of tyranny Like brutes no more. He tells the audience that they have gathered to celebrate the Fourth of July, but he reminds them that the nation is young, and, like a young child, it is still impressionable and capable of positive change. Start page | There were approximately 500 attendees who heard him speak, each paying twelve and a half cents. But on THIS 4th of JULY, all American Christians, black and white, must join in praises for God for His Great Goodness toward the formerly enslaved Africans in America, toward Israel, and all who have been set free among the Israel … ", 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 jubilee shouts that reach them. from your Reading List will also remove any From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion.
Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? Rev. I can today take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! They were great men, too — great enough to give frame to a great age. Indeed, he says, to ask a black person to celebrate the white man's freedom from oppression and tyranny is "inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony." Douglass concludes on an optimistic note. Certainly, on THAT 4th of JULY, the Great Orator, truly had reason to lament the hypocrisy of this nation toward Africans. %%EOF
The Christian church which allows this law to remain in effect, Douglass says, is not really a Christian church at all. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.
"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 136 0 obj
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O! The audience must fulfill what the founders of the country advocated.
They were great men, too — great enough to give frame to a great age. They that can, may; I cannot. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?
Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Until that year, day, hour, arrive, With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive, To break the rod, and rend the gyve, The spoiler of his prey deprive — So witness Heaven! Douglass then asks a rhetorical question: "Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us [blacks]?" had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro By FREDERICK DOUGLASS. Douglass returns to his theme of American democracy and freedom. bookmarked pages associated with this title. And never from my chosen post, Whate'er the peril or the cost, Be driven. 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!". out her hand unto God." At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.
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? And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. Here, he is likely addressing the president of the Anti-Slavery Society — not the president of the United States. ...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. The Fugitive Slave Law, Douglass reasons, is "tyrannical legislation" because it removes all due process and civil rights for the black person: "For black men, there is neither law nor justice, humanity nor religion." Is that a question for Republicans? %PDF-1.4
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In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart.". Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment.
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 ciphering, 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 Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men! That year will come, and freedom's reign, To man his plundered rights again Restore. Related Information | Douglass sides with those activists who believe that the founding fathers meant to eliminate slavery and that the Constitution reflects this. Who can reason on such a proposition? I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. 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. Douglass recalls that when he was a child, the cries of chained slaves passing his house on route to the docks in the middle of the night had a chilling, unsettling effect on him. There is blasphemy in the thought. Space is comparatively annihilated. 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, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man! 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. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" by Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852. How can it be, therefore, that some people are in favor of imposing a condition on others that they would not impose on themselves? That point is conceded already. It is noteworthy that Douglass considers himself a citizen, an equal to the spectators in attendance. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Removing #book# He begins his speech by modestly apologizing for being nervous in front of the crowd and recognizes that he has come a long way since his escape from slavery. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. All rights reserved. That is an understatement indeed.
He reminds the audience that, in 1776, many people thought it was subversive and dangerous to revolt against British tyranny. To his opponents who believe that the Constitution permits slavery, Douglass offers the writings of Spooner, Goodell, Sewall, and Smith — four abolitionists whose essays "clearly vindicate the Constitution from any design to support slavery." The time for such argument is passed.
To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. Douglass moved to Rochester in 1847, when he became the publisher of The North Star, an abolitionist weekly. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The Autobiography as Genre, as Authentic Text. You have already declared it. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. He says there is no person on earth who would be in favor of becoming a slave himself. Jefferson's Account | Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? 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. In fact, slavery was banned in the British colonies in 1834 and in the French colonies in 1848; politicians in those countries could no longer claim to support the rights of man while allowing slavery.
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.
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<. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. He criticizes American ideology as inconsistent. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. He believes that anti-slavery sentiments will eventually triumph over pro-slavery forces. Among his well-known speeches is "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," presented in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, a version of which he published as a booklet. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. (Under this Act, even freed blacks could easily be accused of being fugitive slaves and taken to the South.) 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. 117 0 obj
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Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. 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.
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