That assembly, which represented property-owning men, took place on July 30, 1619. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. You may well cherish the memory of such men. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. As with any great oration, Douglass builds to his point, which is to distinguish between the spirit of celebration typically surrounding the holiday and the misery suffered by enslaved people on that day and every day. The Compromise of 1850 had failed to resolve the controversy over the admission of new slaveholding states to the Union. Harriet Beecher Stowes novel about slavery, Uncle Toms Cabin: Or Life among the Lowly had been published a few months before and unexpectedly became a national bestseller. "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God." In Douglass' speech, his tone mainly appeals to emotions. The people who came to America were surprised by its history. Oppression makes a wise man mad. What is the main message of Douglass's speech? For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? In an Independence Day address in 1852, abolitionist movement leader Frederick Douglass famously asked a gathering in Rochester, New York What to the slave is the Fourth of July?Answering his own question, it is a day, he said, that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. Douglass speech laid bare the hypocrisy of American ideals of freedom at a time when millions were living in Constitutionally-sanctioned bondage across the United States. As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, our economy continues to recover. But, he said, speaking more than a decade before slavery was ended nationally, a lot of work still needed to be done so that all citizens can enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Above your national, tumultuous joy the July 4th celebrations of white Americans were the mournful wails of millions whose heavy chains are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.. The first autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, catapulted him to fame and invigorated the abolitionist movement. America has been working to fully live up to the ideals laid out in the Declaration of Independence ever since the document was printed on July 4, 1776. A small group would gather in a circle and take turns reading paragraphs from the speech. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Harvard Law School provides unparalleled opportunities to study law with extraordinary colleagues in a rigorous, vibrant, and collaborative environment. On 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 orator, often traveling six months out of the year to give lectures on abolition. American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, circa 1855. Not blow for blow; Whom was he trying to reach? On July 4th, 1852, he gave a speech to citizens of the United States. Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. Oh! Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. The Boston communal reading of What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? will take place on Tuesday, July 2 at noon on the Boston Common at the State House, Shaw-MA 54th Memorial. That year will come, and freedoms reign, That day will come all feuds to end. 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. In Douglasss honor, wed like to share an abridged version of his speech now considered one of the greatest in US history. It is neither. The claims of human brotherhood, 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. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. Had I the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Why Frederick Douglass' famous 1852 anti-slavery speech is still read and still resonates in 2017. 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. Frederick Douglass published three autobiographies. In doing so he sets the stage to distinguish the holiday for his audience and establishes the gulf between those in his audience and those who remain in bondage. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. ROY:One of the things that Douglass writings shows us is that he believed in amplifying a variety of voices. Rhetorical Analysis Of Frederick Douglass Speech We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. Butin doing so he brings awareness to the hypocrisy of their ideals by the existence of slavery on American soil. They were great in their day and generation. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. I think he would look at the ongoing gulf between our ideals and reality and might refer back to some of his own analysis to understand the current contradictions. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. It was a scathing speech in which Douglass stated, This Fourth of July is yours, not mine, You may rejoice, I must mourn., In his speech, Douglassacknowledgedthe Founding Fathers of America, the architects of the Declaration of Independence, for their commitment to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness:, Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. To man his plundered fights again The wet plate ambrotype plates are housed in a folding leather case with tooled gilt oval mat. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. There is blasphemy in the thought. "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 may rejoice, I must mourn.. Understanding contradictions such as this is critical for honest conversation. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? He wrote a glowing letter of encouragement to Harriet Tubman, which served as the preface to Sarah Bradfords 1869 biography about Tubmans life. Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? God speed the day when human blood He was invited to give a fourth of July speech by the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. Given all that he has said in his speech, why does Douglass conclude on an optimistic note for black Americans. Across the country, people were thinking and arguing about slavery, abolitionism, and the future of the nation. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour. The audience of Douglass' message were abolitionists, who were white people from the north who did not own slaves and wanted to abolish slavery. "So don't get in our way because if you do, we're going to stand up, we're going to organize and we're going to speak up and . Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? Noting the rapid changes in transportation and communication he insists that Space is comparatively annihilated. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. Douglass message about America struggling to live up to the lofty goals it set for itself at the founding continues to be relevant, says Blight. Frederick Douglass: Speeches & Writings | Library of America Inches "What to the Slave Can the Fourth of July?" Frederick Duplex seeking not only to persuades my of the wrongfulness starting slavery but also to make abolition find acceptable for Northern whites. Be warned! At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. The fact of slavery ruins the celebrations of the Fourth of July. Space is comparatively annihilated. Politics latest updates: NHS 'on the brink' says nursing union; 10% I trust the people of America," Harris said to the crowd. And from his prison-house, the thrall Be warned! 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. 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?, Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Shall cease to flow! The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. To break the rod, and rend the gyve, For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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.