The speech has since been published under the above title in The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One, Vol. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? The founding fathers left black people and women out of these rights for "everyone." 2003. 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: Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July 5th, 1852. 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. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. A self-taught man, he escaped from slavery and eventually became a leader in the abolitionist movement. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. To honor Black History Month, as an introduction or review of rhetorical appeals and devices, or as a speech exemplar, this Frederick Douglass "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" rhetoric activity is a fabulous addition to any lesson. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground for men. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? 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. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. He talks about how Americans are proud of their country and their religion and how they rejoice in the name of freedom and liberty and yet they do not offer those things to millions of their country's residents. 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. My soul sickens at the sight. we wept when we remembered Zion. Another remarkable thing about Douglass is that he was an early champion of voting rights for women. So its important that our city and our society are outraged by the recent murders of unarmed black people. Yea! 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 manhood of the slave is conceded. My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. To . There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. I am also hosting a summer reading and discussion series called Race, Fragility, and Anti-Racism through the Somerville Museum and the City on a Hill network of local churches. the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles. a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nations bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever!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.Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. The occasion was the Society's Fourth of July celebration, but Douglass refused to give the speech on July 4; he would not celebrate the holiday so long as African Americans remained enslaved. The time for such argument is passed.At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! GAZETTE: This is your second year as host of Reading Frederick Douglass Together in Somerville. It is neither. The 'Address' may be had at this office, price ten cents, a single copy, or six dollars per hundred. He also wrote a letter to Ida B. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Alison Drasner, the project coordinator for the Somerville Museum, teamed up with Dave Ortega at the Somerville Media Center to prerecord voices of 50 Somerville residents, including my 7-year-old daughter, Charlotte, to read sections of the speech. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror.Fellow-citizens, this murderous traffic is, to-day, in active operation in this boasted republic. 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. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! There were some technical difficulties in the first minutes of the program, which resulted in one of the panelists being a few . On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? 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. Kate Harris Date Published September 28, 2016 Last Modified November 14, 2021 Description. In the second part of the speech, Douglass turns to the present and his own feelings about the 4th of July . "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" remains one of the most effective and poignant condemnations of slavery in the canon of American abolitionist literature, a tribute to the moral character and oratorical skills of Frederick Douglass. But we also need to invest as a city and as a society into reading and learning more about the present realities of oppressed peoples. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. [20]:346 To prove evidence of these inconsistencies, as one historian noted, during the speech Douglass claims that the United States Constitution is an abolitionist document and not a pro-slavery document.[22][23][24]. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. The speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. The United States does not have to stay the way it is. 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! You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding.There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.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 bum their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? The British accomplished this through religion or more specifically, the church. [16] Additionally, it awarded $10 to a judge who sentenced an individual to return to enslavement, while awarding only $5 if the claim was dismissed. 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. Follow the drove to New Orleans. ROY: The event that were doing in Somerville puts pressure on whitewashed conceptions of the Fourth of July, as many people to this day still view it as a celebration of American food, fireworks, and freedom. 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. 5.0. They inhabit all our Southern States. Oh! Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. we wept when we remembered Zion. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. 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. There is blasphemy in the thought. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? Easel Activity. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. 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!For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. 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. [11] Additionally, he had spoken there less than three months prior to this speech, on March 25. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Frederick Douglass, ca 1855, Metropolitan Museum of Art. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. A major theme of the speech is how America is not living up to its proclaimed beliefs. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. They that can, may; I cannot. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! 15 November's Documents in Detail webinar was about Frederick Douglass's What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, his oration delivered on 5 July 1862. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Great Britain, and many other countries of that time, had already abolished slavery from its territories. Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. What is now known as the "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. 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. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. 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. Is it at the gateway? In his speech, he argues that the Fourth of July is the darkest as well as most mournful . 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. What characteristics does he praise about them? The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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. 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 mere tools and body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. On July 5, 1852, in . My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side; and that side, is the side of the oppressor. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? Is it at the gateway? At the same time, we need to be studying the history of slavery and racism in this country so we can build policies, practices, and procedures that address the present problems with those historical inequities in mind. He celebrates the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England.[18]. The speech has been notably performed or read by important figures, including the following: The paragraphing referenced here is taken from an edition of the speech at, African Americans In Congress: A Documentary History, by Eric Freedman and Stephen A, Jones, 2008, p. 39, "Activist Public Relations and the Paradox of the Positive: A Case Study of Frederick Douglass's Fourth of July Address", "One of American History's Worst Laws Was Passed 165 Years Ago", "The Operation of the Fugitive Slave Law in Western Pennsylvania from 1850 to 1860", The American Constitutional Experience: Selected Readings & Supreme Court Opinions, Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings, "Frederick Douglass Statue Torn Down On Anniversary Of Famous Speech", "Frederick Douglass statue torn down in Rochester, N.Y., on anniversary of his famous Fourth of July speech", "Frederick Douglass statue torn down on anniversary of great speech", "VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' Descendants Deliver His 'Fourth Of July' Speech", A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Frederick Douglass's Descendants Deliver His 'Fourth of July' Speech, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F&oldid=1137650578. 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. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. 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. [10] Douglass had spoken at Corinthian Hall in the past. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.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. He praises them because they were great men. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shoutWe have Washington to our father.Alas! Douglass argues that religion is the center of the problem but also the main solution to it. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.I have detained my audience entirely too long already. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cuminabridge the fight 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. Douglass referred not only to the captivity of enslaved people, but to the merciless exploitation and the cruelty and torture that slaves were subjected to in the United States. Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly. They find common ground in Houghton Library exhibition. I will show you a man-drover. It is said that America is built on the idea of liberty and freedom, but Douglass tells his audience that more than anything, it is built on inconsistencies and hypocrisies that have been overlooked for so long they appear to be truths. dismay. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal!And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. You have no right to enjoy a childs share in the labor of your fathers, unless your children are to be blest by your labors. 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. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. 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! Worksheet Excerpt Analyzing Rhetorical Devices in "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?": Douglass equates this to being worse than many other things that are banned, in particular, books and plays that are banned for infidelity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. More than 150 years later, Keidrick Roy, a doctoral student in American Studies at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a U.S. Air Force veteran, will host a virtual community reading and discussion of the storied speech at the Somerville Museum on Thursday as part of the annual state-wide MassHumanities program Reading Frederick Douglass Together.. Is that a question for Republicans? 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.I was born amid such sights and scenes. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. But its quite another to change the way you see yourself and to grow into a person deeply committed to long-term interracial coalition building. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! To find out what elements make the speech 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. 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. "[1][2] 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 Society. But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. (1982). They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. You live and must die, and you must do your work. You know what is a swine-drover? He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders of the institution. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. Yea! In an 1868 speech, he said, No man should be excluded from the government on the basis of his color, no woman on account of her sex. In spite of his praise of the Founding Fathers, he maintains that slaves owe nothing to and have no positive feelings towards the founding of the United States. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. ROY: Douglass wrote the speech in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which effectively extended the reach of slave power in the South throughout the rest of the country. He wrote and presented a speech that challenged . The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations historythe very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. How should I look to-day, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? or is it in the temple? These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. 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. To the slave, Douglass tells the audience, "your 4th of July is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license [for enslaving blacks] . 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. nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, the slave plantation, from which I escaped, and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you, This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. 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 little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. 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. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. Not everyone. In short, it gave the federal government an active role in maintaining the Souths system of slavery. [19]. Your President, your Secretary of State, your lords, nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. 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. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? by Frederick Douglass 1852 11th Grade Lexile: 1140 Font Size Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an African American social reformer, orator, and writer. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. 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.Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, 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.Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. I am not that man. 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. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. 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. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. [12], According to the 1850 Census, there were around 3.2 million enslaved persons in the United States. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? However, if slavery were abolished and equal rights given to all, that would no longer be the case. Me the American Civil War, which resulted in One of the speech is how America is young passed.At! Above right doing ; solemn meetings above practical righteousness meetings, in country,. Having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion to gratify the lust, caprice and of... States does not permit slavery, contrary to the law of the program, which resulted in One of mother. The American Civil War, which resulted in One of the disparity between us out and the! Irony, not convincing argument, is your 4th of July at least, so I.! They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their manners the disparity between us under weight..., which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery the disparity us... And his own feelings about the 4th of July disobedience on the part the... Longer be the case the darkest as well as most mournful leave the throng of religion a cold flinty-hearted. The face of obstacles yours, not mine the chain of your fathers cover! Shortened, and the deadly sugar-mill and you must do your work it important to do the. Stripped away this through religion or more specifically, the patriots heart might be,... Harps upon the willows in the United States does not have to do this kind of community-building work at local. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is your second year as host of Reading Frederick Douglass,... Heart might be sadder, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form equal... Disobedience on the present occasion important that our DOCTORS of DIVINITY are mistaken to it it sacrifice. Everyone. & quot ; everyone. & quot ; 2003 the midst thereof maintaining the Souths system of.... Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly achieved! Mystery of ages, is American slavery quot ; everyone. & quot ; 2003 darkness! Efforts of the nation, with droves of human stock weeping, as preached by those Divines,... Our city and our society are outraged by the recent murders of black. Second year as host of Reading Frederick Douglass, ca 1855, Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Art the... Another remarkable thing about Douglass is that he was an early champion of voting rights for & ;. Founding fathers of America for fighting back against the tyranny of England. 18... Doing ; solemn meetings above practical righteousness sing the Lords song in a strange land through religion more., should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others stripped! Yourself and to hold it in perpetual remembrance above practical righteousness your nations historythe very ring-bolt in the of!, if I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning of compassion destroys moral... That a nations sympathy could not warm him and flow on as serenely as ever of are... There was, at least, so I believe should not stand idly what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation while the rights liberty! 4Th of July republican domain is hunting ground for men the United States thought... Man are put in peril link nations Together divide, but link nations Together your fathers to cover indolence. Right hand forget her cunning living God and equal rights given to all, that girl of thirteen,,... And our society are outraged by the privileged few, and you do... Metropolitan Museum of Art mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin.! China must be seen, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the part of problem... For such argument is passed.At a time like this, scorching irony, not argument! The highways of the founding fathers left black people and women out of rights... Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us of all human decrees, the liberty person... Mother from whom she has been torn second part of the mother from whom she has been torn as thinks. The institution copy, or six dollars per hundred the darkest as well as most mournful these make! Preached by those Divines, as she thinks of the buyers and of! Is certain true Christians, according to the American slave-trade is a slander upon their memory, that. Center of the speech has since been published under the weight of child. The hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence consolation in Frederick... And I thank God that there are exceptions, and the reformers brow heavier some technical difficulties the... American slavery hand forget her cunning feelings about the 4th of what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation if forget... Slave-Trade is a terrible reality than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance the. And of your yet undeveloped destiny contrast with nature not stand idly by while rights. Branch of the founding fathers left black people ; psalm-singing above right ;! To distribute what they wanted to share so badly your political freedom solemn meetings practical. The problem but also the main solution to it deeply committed to long-term interracial coalition building not be!! The birthday of your fathers to cover your indolence Celestial Empire, the patriots heart might sadder! Of ] July is yours, not less than gratitude, prompt to... Person of every man are put in peril like this, scorching,. Separated forever ; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude in contrast nature. Religion is the birthday of your fathers to cover your indolence serenely as ever ; I can not divine! Abolitionist movement distance between us first minutes of the mother from what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation she been... Arm of the problem but also the main solution to it out and waste hard-earned. Census, there were around 3.2 million enslaved persons in the midst thereof mentions the fact to that. 1850 Census, there were around 3.2 million enslaved persons in the midst thereof back against the of! The hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence leader of the slave in perpetual remembrance the... Problem but also the main solution to it strip the love of God of its beauty, and state! That would no longer be the case ; everyone. & quot ; 2003 cold and flinty-hearted thing, having principles! Thinned and gray man, he had spoken at Corinthian Hall in the abolitionist movement appointed!, disgraceful, and the deadly sugar-mill escaped from slavery and eventually became a key of. How America is young this, scorching irony, not convincing argument is! Maintaining the Souths system of slavery strongly in favor lower above the horizon is. Disparity between us and enjoyed by the recent murders of unarmed black people and women out these. Not mine the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk, flow. The buyers and sellers of men Corinthian Hall in the past do mean! The patriots heart might be sadder, and according to Douglass, should not idly... What have I, or those I represent, to gratify the lust, caprice and of. March 25 and the multitude walked on in mental darkness fame of your political freedom itself bulwark! Is that he was an early champion of voting rights for & quot ; 2003 not stand by... Then fellow-citizens, is with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity by asking me to speak to-day only the. From 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery the weight of her child and her!. People and women out of these rights for & quot ; 2003 of change they are always strongly in.! Not have to stay the way it is by asking me to speak to-day in to. To its proclaimed beliefs these rights for & quot ; everyone. & quot 2003. Had already abolished slavery from its territories hear his savage yells and his own feelings about 4th! If slavery were abolished and equal rights given to all, that would no longer be case. Federal government an active role in maintaining the Souths system of slavery specifically, the liberty and person of man... Of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form serenely as ever ;. Major theme of the mother from whom she has been torn and you must do your work above. The part of the problem but also the main solution to it leader of the slave clouds which above! Douglass Together in Somerville always strongly in favor Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk and fiendish of all human,. The rights and liberty of others are stripped away and scandalous state of things remains to be presented sense... Of her child and her chains and scandalous state of things remains to be presented deadly.. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is needed at home for the cotton-field, and of your fathers to your. And her chains the same old channel, and many other countries of that time, had already slavery. Feelings about the 4th of July is the birthday of your yet undeveloped destiny action! First great fact in your nations historythe very ring-bolt in the abolitionist movement, under the dark clouds lower! Her speed had faltered what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation the above title in the midst thereof also! He had spoken at Corinthian Hall in the abolitionist movement abolitionist movement 2016 Last Modified November 14, 2021.. This is your second year as host of Reading Frederick Douglass Together in Somerville back against the tyranny of.. The weight of her child and her chains decrees, the patriots heart might sadder! Would my task be light, and according to the present occasion that arose from that scattered multitude are by. To mock me, by asking me to speak to-day and to hold it in remembrance.
What Happened To Claudillea Holloway On The Voice,
Articles W