Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. All Rights Reserved. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. And while slavery has long been abolished and outlawed, the sentiment behind the address still applies in many unfortunate ways when it comes to the overall Black experience in America. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) 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! It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) the internal slave trade. It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. or is it in the temple? You could instruct me in regard to them. My soul sickens at the sight. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? I repeat, I am glad this is so. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. Mark them! There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. 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. 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. When Douglass delivered his famous The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, What to the American slave is your 4th of July? 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? Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African Fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains heavy and grievous yesterday are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. The slave holders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. In a very telling sign, the fateful words of Frederick Douglass from a speech he delivered 170 years ago still resonate very much in 2022 as Black people in America continue the fight for the same kind of equality that the legendary abolitionist was demanding back in the mid-19th century. It was, Milloy continued, a critique of a nation that claimed to hold dear the principles of freedom, justice and equality even as it enslaved black people.. 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. You may well cherish the memory of such men. Fellow-citizens! The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; buthow, we ask, could such a thing be done? Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. I hold that every American citizen has a right to form an opinion of the constitution, and to propagate that opinion, and to use all honorable means to make his opinion the prevailing one. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. Its the news, without the news. The time was when such could be done. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student. I cannot. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. 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? Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. His death, according to Douglass was not only tragic, but also prevented recently freed slaves and African Americans from gaining the ear of wise and well-intentioned leader. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. They inhabit all our Southern States. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. 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. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. That point is conceded already. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. Discover why Rev is the #1 speech-to-text service in the world. My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. that it should be so; yet so it is. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. Everybody can say it; the dastard, not less than the noble brave, can flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? Nobody doubts it. 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? 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? Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. 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.. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. The text of Frederick Douglasss most famous speech, given in 1852, What, to a slave, is the Fourth of July? A chapter describing Douglasss early encounters with abolitionists, from his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom, 1857. Many of you understand them better than I do. 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. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, newspaper publisher, and respected abolitionist. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. Web" was a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. They, that can, may. There is blasphemy in the thought. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? When the dogs in your street, 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 I will argue with you that the slave is a man. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. 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. The fact that the church of our country, (with fractional exceptions), does not esteem the Fugitive Slave Law as a declaration of war against religious liberty, implies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, andnota vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. The manhood of the slave is conceded. 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. Frederick Douglass: (08:30) WebIn the late 1860sat a moment of great hope for the promise of equality under the lawthe famed orator and once-enslaved abolitionist Frederick Douglass took his Our Composite Nation speech on the road to argue for a plural American democracy. In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the South; I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. Speech-to-Text API for pre-recorded audio, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition engine. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. But now is the time, the important time. Under Title 17 U.S.C. Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. 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. They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. 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. For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globeand it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. 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.