In this respect, Douglass's views converged with that of Abraham Lincoln's[25] in that those politicians who were saying that the Constitution was a justification for their beliefs in regard to slavery were doing so dishonestly. 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. Douglass then pivots to the present, stating that "We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future". Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices under an open and palpable bribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty, hear only his accusers!In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. 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. Yea! Follow the drove to New Orleans. You glory in your refinement and your universal education yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful as ever stained the character of a nationa system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty. He expresses his belief in the speech that he and other slaves are fighting the same fight in terms of wishing to be free that White Americans, the ancestors of the white people he is addressing, fought seventy years earlier. 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. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. 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. by Frederick Douglass 1852 11th Grade Lexile: 1140 Font Size Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an African American social reformer, orator, and writer. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more. that it should be so; yet so it is. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. 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. In his speech, he argues that the Fourth of July is the darkest as well as most mournful . Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christians God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? But the 1852 "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech remains the best known of his addresses on the occasion, especially as it became even more widely read in the late-20th century,. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? 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. Assignment in book chapter School Alief Early College High School Course English language and literature (ELL2002) Uploaded by God Academic year2021/2022 Helpful? 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. All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation a religion, a church, and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.But, such is not the state of the case. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Students also viewed [28][29] The head of the organization responsible for the memorial speculated that it was vandalized in response to the removal of Confederate monuments in the wake of the George Floyd protests.[30]. Yea! In the second part of the speech, Douglass turns to the present and his own feelings about the 4th of July . Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass 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? 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. There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty. [9][10] He had previously lived in Boston, but did not want his newspaper to interfere with sales of The Liberator, published by William Lloyd Garrison. 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. Ossie DavisA Voice Ringing O'er the Gale! I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Knowledge is becoming more readily available, Douglass said, and soon the American people will open their eyes to the atrocities they have been inflicting on their fellow Americans. He implored the Rochester, N.Y., audience to think about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday celebrating freedom. 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. 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.For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Rhetorical Analysis Of Harvey Fourth Of July. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders of the institution. GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. 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. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? Not everyone. 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. You live and must die, and you must do your work. O! If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 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. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. 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. 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 had delivered a series of seven lectures about slavery there in the winter of 185051. Table of Contents. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. 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! 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what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation