Community Reading: Frederick Douglass's "What For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. 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. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. Sign up for NewsOne's email newsletter! The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul! They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. 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. 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. 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.. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. 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.. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? The anti-slavery movementtherewas 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 of a hostile position towards that movement. Yea! Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? In the text it states, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave- we are called upon to prove that we are men? (Douglas 763). They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. 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. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. we wept when we remembered Zion. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. 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. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. The din of business, too, is hushed. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. Morel is right that the 1876 speech by Frederick Douglass is remarkable and masterful. speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglasss life and the evolution of his thought in this period. Short bio of Frederick Douglass The Frederick Douglass Papers Library of Congress If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. 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. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. 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 may well cherish the memory of such men. He can bring no witnesses for himself. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. Frederick Douglass The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. 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. At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. 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. Its quite a remarkable speech as Douglass in a way reenacts his own journey in appreciation for the work that Lincoln did, not just for blacks, but for whites in this country. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. The drove moves tardily. 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? 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. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man Speech | The Art of Manliness your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Frederick Douglass, circa 1879. Difference between Rittenhouse and McMichael-Bryan verdicts? 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. From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed. I shall not be charged with slandering Americans, if I say I think the American side of any question may be safely left in American hands. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. 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! Many of its most eloquent Divines. In the deep still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead heavy footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. WebDescription. Space is comparatively annihilated. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) 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. Transcript Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. That point is conceded already. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. Frederick Douglass: (09:38) 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 A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? 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Its deeply moving to hear Douglass defend the honor of Black soldiers in his 1863 speech, The Proclamation And a Negro Army, read by Colman Domingo, while his final speech, 1894s Lessons of the Hour, lays out the crucial steps toward achieving equality that have yet to be followed today.The actor selected to read these words is For who is there so cold that a nation sympathy cannot warm him, who so adore it and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. Our Composite Nation: Frederick Douglass America 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. Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. But now is the time, the important time. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. 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.