You will see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. I am not that man. 2. 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 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, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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. On July 5, 1852, in . What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. Building off of this, Douglass criticizes the Fugitive Slave Act, holding that in this act, "slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form." That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. What is now known as the "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? 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. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. "Meaning of the Fourth of July to a Negro" by Bridget Durham The Fourth of July is a day of celebration for many Americans because on July 4th, 1776, America declared independence from Britain and said that everyone was free under the US government, right? You may rejoice, I must mourn. 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. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appearedmen, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shoutWe have Washington to our father.Alas! Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. 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. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. I am also hosting a summer reading and discussion series called Race, Fragility, and Anti-Racism through the Somerville Museum and the City on a Hill network of local churches. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror.Fellow-citizens, this murderous traffic is, to-day, in active operation in this boasted republic. Douglass vividly describes the conditions under which those enslaved are bought and sold; he says that they are treated as no more than animals. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. 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. 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! Douglass, Frederick, ed. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. The speech 'What to the Slaves is the Fourth of July' projected the American Day of Independence from a slave's point of view and brought to light the horrific experiences of slavery. 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! There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. O! 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. He wrote and presented a speech that challenged . 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. The anti-slavery movement there was 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 or a hostile position towards that movement. [8] Frederick Douglass had moved to Rochester in 1847 in order to publish his newspaper The North Star. [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. 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 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations historythe very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. dismay. 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. 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. There is blasphemy in the thought. 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. 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. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. [20]:346 To prove evidence of these inconsistencies, as one historian noted, during the speech Douglass claims that the United States Constitution is an abolitionist document and not a pro-slavery document.[22][23][24]. 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. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? But now is the time, the important time. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. one of the most important speeches of the 19th century? ROY:One of the things that Douglass writings shows us is that he believed in amplifying a variety of voices. Rhetorical Analysis Of Harvey Fourth Of July. in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! 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! 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 that can, may; I cannot. This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper. [5] American studies professor Andrew S. Bibby argues that because many of the editions produced for educational use are abridged, they often misrepresent Douglass's original through omission or editorial focus. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. One of the biggest challenges we face in our present moment is building sustainable movements that fundamentally change peoples minds about race and racism. In the end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high. What, to the past, false to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such benefits! Challenges we face in our present moment is building sustainable movements that fundamentally change peoples minds about race racism! 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