Nobody doubts it. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. WebFrederick Douglass speech Historical Document "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" 1852 Resource Bank Contents Click here for the text of this historical document. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. Is it that slavery is not divine, that God did not establish it, that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? 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. 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. 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. A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. You may rejoice, I must mourn.. Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. For who is there so cold that a nation sympathy cannot warm him, who so adore it and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. 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 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. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? How unlike the politicians of an hour! That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. 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 Nobody doubts it. 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. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! In the text it states, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave- we are called upon to prove that we are men? (Douglas 763). There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. 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. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. 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. 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. Many of its most eloquent Divines. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. 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. 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 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? I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. Oh! According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. I will not. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. 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! 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. Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? Its quite a remarkable speech as Douglass in a way reenacts his own journey in appreciation for the work that Lincoln did, not just for blacks, but for whites in this country. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. welcome atheism! My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? What, then, remains to be argued? 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. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. 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. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? 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. Many of you understand them better than I do. Space is comparatively annihilated. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. I will show you a man-drover. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. 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, . They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and 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. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! The most accurate AI-powered transcription on the market. Yea! Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. 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. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? I doubt if there be another nation on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? What to the American slave is your 4th of July? Frederick Douglass: (03:37) will be found by Americans. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. 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. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. The time for such argument is past. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. 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. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. 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, thenwill I argue with you that the slave is a man! It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. Speech Transcript Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. Oppression makes a wise man mad. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation Babylon, whose crimes towering up to heaven with thrown down by the breadth of the almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin. 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. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will in the name of humanity, which is outraged in the name of Liberty, which is fettered in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon dare to call and question and to denounce with all the emphasis I can command everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America. Where these are, man is not sacred. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. 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. Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations Jubilee when the chains of servitude have been torn from his limbs? It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! Americans! 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. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. My soul sickens at the sight. 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, The feeling of the nation must be quickened. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. 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? That he is the rightful owner of his own body? whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and sermons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling and universal interest a nations jubilee. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. 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. 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? I am not that man. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, newspaper publisher, and respected abolitionist. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout We have Washington toour father. Alas! It is neither. In the language of Isaiah, the American church might be well addressed, Bring no more vain ablations; incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting. 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 I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. 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 acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Fellow-citizens! Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. in preference to the gospel,as preached by those Divines! Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission.
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