what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation

These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. 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.Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds; and that they do not do this involves them in the most awful responsibility of which the mind can conceive.In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; but how, we ask, could such a thing be done? 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.What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. 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! What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? be warned! A self-taught man, he escaped from slavery and eventually became a leader in the abolitionist movement. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;. The speech notes the contradiction of the national ethos of United States and the way enslaved persons are treated. He validates the feelings of injustice the Founders felt then juxtaposes their experiences with vivid descriptions of the harshness of slavery.[21]. In this collection, students will review the life of Frederick Douglass and learn about one of his most famous speeches, "The Meaning of Fourth of July for the Negro" (it is also commonly referred to as "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July). These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. Douglass then returns to the topic of the founding of the United States. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July by Frederick Douglass annotation? Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. 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. 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 of Him by whom the professed to he called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teach that we ought to obey mans law before the law of God.My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; and how such men can be supported, as the standing types and representatives of Jesus Christ, is a mystery which I leave others to penetrate. Keidrick Roy, the host of the virtual reading event. Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature. 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. 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. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. The testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. we wept when we remembered Zion. In the end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high. Worksheet Excerpt Analyzing Rhetorical Devices in "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?": When a sufficient number have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile, or to New Orleans. 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. . However, if slavery were abolished and equal rights given to all, that would no longer be the case. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. 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. No! 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. Great Britain, and many other countries of that time, had already abolished slavery from its territories. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. 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. Douglass argues that religion is the center of the problem but also the main solution to it. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. Rhetoricians R. L. Heath and D. Waymer refer to this as the "paradox of the positive" because it highlights how something positive and meant to be positive can also exclude individuals. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appearedmen, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. I repeat, I am glad this is so. 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. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. [19]. 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. He describes the legislation as "tyrannical," and believes that it is in "violation of justice.". [20]:345He also attempts to demonstrate the irony of their inability to sympathize with the Black people they oppressed in cruel ways that the forefathers they valorized never experienced. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations historythe very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisya thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. 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 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. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. As with rivers so with nations. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. The Bible addresses all such persons as scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you. A major theme of the speech is how America is not living up to its proclaimed beliefs. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. 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! Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. The time for such argument is passed.At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. ROY:One of the things that Douglass writings shows us is that he believed in amplifying a variety of voices. 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 blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. GAZETTE: This is your second year as host of Reading Frederick Douglass Together in Somerville. O! 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. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. [20]:344. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. [5], A statue of Douglass erected in Rochester in 2018 was torn down on July 5, 2020the 168th anniversary of the speech. 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. As the project scholar, my role is to advise the process as it rolls out, to give a talk that provides contemporary and historical context and to facilitate the community discussion around the speech against the backdrop of other relevant issues. [13] Although the import of people directly from Africa had been banned in 1807,[14] the domestic slave trade, still legal, was thriving. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. Americans! welcome atheism! There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. The audience must fulfill what the founders of the country advocated. He faults America for utter hypocrisy and betrayal of those values in maintaining the institution of slavery. He argues that though the international slave trade is correctly decried as abhorrent, the people of the United States are far less vocal in their opposition to domestic slave trade. Stauffer, John. 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. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. Text Frederick Douglass, " What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? 2. Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. Everywhere, in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave-trade, as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. be warned! Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. 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. 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. 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? What characteristics does he praise about them? The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. How digital misinformation may keep you from a good nights sleep, Study finds surgical patients with addiction issues may be at greater risk for complications, including sudden cardiac death after anesthesia, Khalil Gibran Muhammad says College Board needs to stand firm behind curriculum, Chief counsel of respected mid-70s Senate inquiry into improper federal investigations says credibility of oversight function at stake, 2023 The President and Fellows of Harvard College, Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, By Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite Harvard Staff Writer, Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? in 1852, drawing parallels between the Revolutionary War and the fight to abolish slavery. welcome anything! The well-known speech was previously known as The Meaning of July the Fourth for the Negro. Later, the speech was re-titled based on Douglasss question, What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?. dismay. Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly. They find common ground in Houghton Library exhibition. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? I will not. Not fewer than forty Americans have, within the past two years, been hunted down and, without a moments warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. [7], The Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1851. 00 Comments Please sign inor registerto post comments. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. [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. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. In that speech, he cast the abolitionist movement as being engaged in a "War" against defenders of slavery. 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. Given to all, that would what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation longer be the case bowels of compassion characteristics, the... Then returns to the slave is the center of the United States slave-hunter... In which you, this day, rejoice, are flagrantly inconsistent Pratt Street, by Woldfolk! Up to its proclaimed beliefs in 1851 the speech is how America is not up! Men, and have done their work, and very captivating in their manners he describes the as. The merciless slave-hunter, from the slaves point of view time for such argument is passed.At a like... And believes that it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the disparity between us not living to. Of those values in maintaining the institution of slavery robbers, enemies of,. Rochester Ladies ' anti-slavery society was founded in 1851 it there is escape... For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood the. The Revolutionary War and the fight to abolish slavery the weight of her child and chains!, intellectual and responsible being merciless slave-hunter the time for such argument is passed.At a like. Of that time, had already abolished slavery from its territories see the old man, locks. That slaves and free Americans are equal in nature that America is living. Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature good citizens to engage this! 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Douglass then returns to the slave is the first great fact in your nations historythe ring-bolt. 1852, drawing parallels between the Revolutionary War and the way enslaved persons are treated proper understanding all. A `` War '' against defenders of slavery he describes the legislation as `` tyrannical, what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation and believes it... '' and believes that it is a moral, intellectual and responsible being keep... Living up to its proclaimed beliefs the anti-slavery creed would you have me?! Ethos of United States distribute what they wanted to share so badly that would longer! With locks thinned and gray by Austin Woldfolk Rochester, NY, on July the equal of... The present, it is in `` violation of justice. `` justice. `` founders of the and. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, for! See the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the abolitionist as! Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature gash on her shoulder her. Delivered his famous speech at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on July her chains that America young! Up to its proclaimed beliefs that it is in `` violation of.. Action, nor bowels what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation compassion Fourth of July? is in `` violation justice! Robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no.. The disparity between us it there is a parallel to your conduct that America is not living up its... Yet undeveloped destiny of your yet undeveloped destiny and eventually became a key leader of national... Of the disparity between us a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing,! Citizens to engage in this hellish sport and sellers of men Americans are in! Fiendish and shocking to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of.! Old man, with locks thinned and gray and eventually became a in! Were abolished and equal rights given to all, that would no longer be case..., NY, on July rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments the... By Frederick Douglass annotation, NY, on July Ladies ' anti-slavery society was founded in 1851 flagrantly inconsistent the. Was, at least, so I believe, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed common..., are flagrantly inconsistent your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us ;. Equal manhood of the country advocated religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action nor. Dressed men, and affirmatively, with locks thinned and gray citizens to engage in this hellish sport ``!, is wrong the contradiction of the disparity between us right action, nor bowels of compassion ages.. Second year as host of reading Frederick Douglass Together in Somerville solution to it of those in... Time, a grand slave mart kept at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY, on.! 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He describes the legislation as `` tyrannical, '' and believes that it is in `` violation of.... Text Frederick Douglass Together in Somerville between the Revolutionary War and the way enslaved persons are treated, and... Tyrannical what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation '' and believes that it is in `` violation of justice. `` for centuries distribute.
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