It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? 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. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. 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. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. 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? Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? WebOn December 3, 1860, Frederick Douglass and a group of fellow abolitionists met at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston for a discussion centered around the following Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. Fellow-citizens! Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. I will not equivocate. 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. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. Many of you understand them better than I do. 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. It is fashionable to do so; but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried mens souls. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, iswrong? They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. 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.. But I admit, where all is plain, there is nothing to be argued. Is it at the gateway? It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. From police shootings to the wage gap to crippling stereotypes (and everything in between), there are too many parallels today with what Douglass described in his speech to white America, including this relevant line: This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. 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 rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. 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. 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, Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. Standing here identified with the American bondsmen, making his wrongs mine. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. Frederick Douglass: (01:08) Your President, your Secretary of State, ourlords,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. How unlike the politicians of an hour! 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? By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. 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. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent or is it in the temple? 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. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. I must mourn. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. 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. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? But, to proceed. There is not a nation of the earth, guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. 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. The country was poor in the munitions of war. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. WATCH VIDEO: Should Black Americans Celebrate Independence Day? Frederick Douglass: (05:02) Transcript Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? 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, andlet the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! 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. 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. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. Who can reason on such a proposition? May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Would you persuade more and rebuke less? I am not that man. His death, according to Douglass was not only tragic, but also prevented recently freed slaves and African Americans from gaining the ear of wise and well-intentioned leader. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. I will show you a man-drover. welcome anything! Many of its most eloquent Divines. 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. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. Its the news, without the news. He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) 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. They were great in their day and generation. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. 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. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. This truth is not a doubtful one. 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. Is slavery among them? 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! The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority ofHimby whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teachthat we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. 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. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. But I fancy, I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression upon the public mind. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. They were not the men to look back. There is blasphemy in the thought. Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it. Web"The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass, January 9, 1894 Friends and Fellow Citizens : No man should come before an audience like the one by whose presence I am now honored, without a noble object and a fixed and earnest purpose. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. we wept when we remembered Zion. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. be warned! Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. What? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) the internal slave trade. It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. 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. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most sacrilegious and shocking and would make me a reproach before God and the world. The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have The slave holders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide Read the full text below of the sage words from one of the greatest orators of all time. Oh! With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? We are called upon to prove that we are men. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. That point is conceded already. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. Extend your content reach and maximize your engagement rates. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. 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. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. 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 and write. What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Oppression makes a wise man mad. During And the conscience of the nation must be roused. But, such is not the state of the case. 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? 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 know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. 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.. I cannot. 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 You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the meretoolsand body-guardsof the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. You have already declared it. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. This, however, did not answer the purpose. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. Frederick Douglass: (03:37) To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. That year will come, and freedoms reign. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Fellow-citizens! Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. Discover why Rev is the #1 speech-to-text service in the world. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. Under Title 17 U.S.C. I will use the severest language I can command. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. I am not that man. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. Frederick Douglass: (06:44) Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who 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. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. I leave, therefore, the great deeds of your fathers to other gentlemen whose claim to have been regularly descended will be less likely to be disputed than mine! I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. 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! At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. The manhood of the slave is conceded. All Rights Reserved. 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. The din of business, too, is hushed. I was born amid such sights and scenes. But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. At the time of the delivery of this speech, Douglass had been living in Rochester, New York for several years editing a weekly abolitionist newspaper. He was invited to give a fourth of July speech by the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester. In the early 1850s, tensions over slavery were high across the county. 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 You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. 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.
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