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, 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 country was poor in the munitions of war. 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. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. Frederick Douglass: (07:35) From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. 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. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! What to the American slave is your 4th of July? By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. 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.. 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! Under Title 17 U.S.C. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right, ought to be free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved.. You live and must die, and you must do your work. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. We need the storm. WebOn January 9, 1894, at Washington, D.C.'s, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Frederick Douglass delivered his "The Lessons of the Hour" speech, which addressed the WebAn excerpt from the 1847 Frederick Douglass speech given for the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. 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, Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? 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. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. The drove moves tardily. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. 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! 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. Is that a question for Republicans? The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. 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, 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. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? 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, . Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. That point is conceded already. Space is comparatively annihilated. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Is that a question for Republicans? We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror. 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! That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. Where these are, man is not sacred. It was fashionable, hundreds of years ago, for the children of Jacob to boast, we have Abraham to our father, when they had long lost Abrahams faith and spirit. 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. His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills, headed CASH FOR NEGROES. I will show you a man-drover. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations history the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen. Would you persuade more and rebuke less? 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. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. That year will come, and freedoms reign. Born to an enslaved family in 1818, Frederick Douglass never knew his actual birthday, a fact not uncommon for those enslaved. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Like our content? But, such is not the state of the case. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! The time for such argument is passed. 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. 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. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. Create a better, more engaging experience for every student. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. You could instruct me in regard to them. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. I will not excuse. Further, if this demand were not complied with, another Scotland would be added to the history of religious liberty, and the stern old Covenanters would be thrown into the shade. Frederick Douglass: (09:38) The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. Frederick Douglass: (06:44) Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you. 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. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. It is neither. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. Yea! 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. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African 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? Suicide Note Revealed After Shocking Death, Mississippi Cops Beat, Waterboarded Handcuffed Black Men, Shot 1 For Dating White Women': Lawyers, Indicted! What, then, remains to be argued? Yea! 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I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. 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 There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; and how such men can be supported, as the standing types and representatives of Jesus Christ, is a mystery which I leave others to penetrate. What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. 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. Frederick Douglass: (03:37) Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. Many of its most eloquent Divines. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. All Rights Reserved. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. 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! How unlike the politicians of an hour! Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted Liberty, an unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. Its the news, without the news. 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. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? 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. For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globeand it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. 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. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you. Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. These rules are well established. 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. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. 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. 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.. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. All Rights Reserved. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. 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. 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, 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. I am not that man. O! And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. My soul sickens at the sight. WebFrederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) O! Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. Fair use is permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. 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. He can bring no witnesses for himself. But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. The slave holders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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! Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? 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. that it should be so; yet so it is. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed. Oh! No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. welcome atheism! will be found by Americans. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who Is it that slavery is not divine, that God did not establish it, that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. And while slavery has long been abolished and outlawed, the sentiment behind the address still applies in many unfortunate ways when it comes to the overall Black experience in America. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. That point is conceded already. WebDescription. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, newspaper publisher, and respected abolitionist. Frederick Douglass: (08:30) The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. 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. 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. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) 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. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. 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. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. WebOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Douglass was a powerful It 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.. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Would you argue more and denounce less? These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. You have already declared it. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? What then remains to be argued? For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and the appellation, probably, conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to some of our old politicians. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? 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. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) 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. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) The Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. WebIn the late 1860sat a moment of great hope for the promise of equality under the lawthe famed orator and once-enslaved abolitionist Frederick Douglass took his Our Composite Nation speech on the road to argue for a plural American democracy. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slaves point of view. This, however, did not answer the purpose. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Ex-Vice-President Dallas tells us that the Constitution is an object to which no American mind can be too attentive, and no American heart too devoted. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression.
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