What to the Slave is the 4th of July?

by Frederick Douglass

(...)"This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. I am glad, (...)".

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Classics, Race, Essays, School

Unknown Binding

First published July 5, 1852

About the author

Frederick Douglass (né Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey) was born a slave in the state of Maryland in 1818. After his escape from slavery, Douglass became a renowned abolitionist, editor and feminist. Having escaped from slavery at age 20, he took the name Frederick Douglass for himself and became an advocate of abolition. Douglass traveled widely, and often perilously, to lecture against slavery.

His first of three autobiographies, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, was published in 1845. In 1847 he moved to Rochester, New York, and started working with fellow abolitionist Martin R. Delany to publish a weekly anti-slavery newspaper, North Star. Douglass was the only man to speak in favor of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's controversial plank of woman suffrage at the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. As a signer of the Declaration of Sentiments, Douglass also promoted woman suffrage in his North Star. Douglass and Stanton remained lifelong friends.

In 1870 Douglass launched The New National Era out of Washington, D.C. He was nominated for vice-president by the Equal Rights Party to run with Victoria Woodhull as presidential candidate in 1872. He became U.S. marshal of the District of Columbia in 1877, and was later appointed minister resident and consul-general to Haiti. His District of Columbia home is a national historic site. D. 1895.

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1...

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhi...

http://www.loc.gov/collection/frederi...

http://www.nps.gov/frdo/index.htm

http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/exhibits...

Reviews

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant essay on the hypocrisy of this celebration when 3 million of the country's inhabitants were enslaved, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, is bold and unsparing. He delivered this speech on July 5, 1852, nine years before the Civil War began. He called out our peculiar brand of democracy and also our religious leaders, who for the most part agreed that slavery was sanctioned in the Bible.

There were brave men and women who exposed the false creed of a type of Christianity and democracy that would allow men to own other men, women, and children and to torture, rape and kill them without any repercussions. Those were the exception and not the rule
Thank goodness for the decency of those men, like Abraham Lincoln, who appealed to the better angels of our nature. We would have to fight a bloody war to see slavery abolished.

[Catherine⁷]

“That which is inhuman cannot be divine.”

[DeeReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading "What To the Slave Is the Fourth of July" once again and the words continue to stay in my head. And to listen to his descendants are just as powerful...


https://www.npr.org/2020/07/03/884832...


What a powerful and moving speech that is still applicable in the 21st century. Please read "What to The Slave is the Fourth of July" and understand why the words are so moving and relates to BLM and why equality for all, not just the few!

"The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. — The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. 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. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?"



“The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie.” ~Frederick Douglass


5 noteworthy stars!

[andreea. · Rating 4 out of 5]

.

[Vaishali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a poignant assemblage of words from a singularly exceptional man.

[Marisha Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read that aged so well. It is alarming that I relate so clearly to a speech that was delivered 170 years ago. I find myself feeling a weird mix of pride and pain on the 4th of July. Douglas clearly explains my feelings 141 years before I existed by answering the question “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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.”

But HBD America…the grilling, day off from work, and fireworks are nice.

[Aliza]

Honestly, soooooo much of what he said in 1852 still holds true today. He was incredibly insightful about American Christianity, republicans, and the general hypocrisy of the country. He ended on a hopeful note but did not apologize for the scathing and severe read he performed on the US. I’d say this should be read in schools but where I am (Texas), that’d be highly unlikely.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful moral argument. Great example of how to give a political address that simultaneously flatters and challenges one's audience. I read a PDF of the original 1852 edition, c/o the University of Rochester's Frederick Douglass Project: http://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2884.

[Nikhil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Douglass' rousing, provocative abolitionist speech is breathtaking in the clarity of its vision and the force of its expression.

[Cassidy Yarborough · Rating 5 out of 5]

YO! This was amazing. Everyone needs to hear/read this if haven't already!

Fredrick calling out the American government BUT ESPECIALLY the American church for its hypocrisy and the oppression it is doing to its citizens of African descent is just so freaking good. He declares appalling in their faces, as he tells them that the celebration of this nation is freedom for the white majority but subjugation and violence for his people.

"You profess to believe "that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth," and hath commanded all men, everywhere, to love one another; yet you notoriously hate (and glory in your hatred) all men whose skins are not colored like your own."

Fredrick mentions, "Notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country." If the God in which the church does serve is one of liberation and the constitution that America celebrates is indeed one of freedom, justice, and liberation for all. And that all men are created equal, then he has hope.

It's crazy still to feel the same sort of anger, sadness, and hope that Fredrick felt years ago in my current relationship with the church and this country.

Reading this speech made me think of the litany of suffering that connects brown, black, and other POC folks, and how the same things our ancestors were declaring are the same things we still are saying now.

What a great reminder though that the God whom my ancestors saw as liberation, hope, and joy...is not the same God that is worshiped in the pulpits that preach hate, greed, and power.

This too reminds me that I have a choice to be an ambassador of love and who chooses to be with (as well as sacrifice on behalf of) the sick, the vulnerable, the weak, and the ones that are pushed to the margins.

Let this not just be a reminder or something that sounds good to the ear, but something that drives us into action.


"God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign.
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe."
- William Lloyd Garrison

[liana · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is nothing intelligent I can say about Douglas's plea for abolition other than how it struck me to my core. Instead of my own ramblings, here are some quotes that stuck out to me:

"I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn."

"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, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man.... 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.'"

"There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him."

"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, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man.... 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.'"

"That which is inhuman cannot be divine."

[Jarrett Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fourth of July is a complicated holiday for many Americans. When you're Black and gay like me, living during this period of partisan divide, this holiday brings out warring emotions. Do I celebrate or protest? Patriotism and dissent go hand in hand, I think. You need one to temper the other. Reading this slim book each year on July 4 puts lots of things into perspective for me. Not only does it excoriate the United States' inescapable past, which includes enslavement, genocide, colonization and myriad other atrocities, it highlights the problem of intersectionality. Douglass' words are timeless.

[Yomna Saber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly, almost everything still resonates with today. The oppression and racism are pretty much the same, if not worse. Slavery has indeed lost its physical dimension, but the intellectual mindset still has the upper hand. I loved the way he organized his speech, his creative figures of speech, the use of rhetorical questions, the stark language and cornering his audiences to face the reality of the situation.

[Andrew Pineda · Rating 5 out of 5]

They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitation against oppression. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny.

[Erica Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity."

Reading Frederick Douglass’ speech 173 years since its oration on July 5th, 1852, in Corinthian Hall, New York, is harrowing, to say the least. Harrowing because I feel like a seated member of the audience - and his words are piercing. Harrowing because I feel history, already, is in the process of repeating itself, for every day we see the face of nameless cruelities, hear a groaning beneath injustice.

At the time of this speech, America would have been only 76 years old, and slavery would have been alive and well. Douglass held nothing back in his address - his words were scorching, unflinchingly honest, but pained, as he denounced American slavery to his audience of five hundred or so. It takes courage to stand up as a man formerly in chains, and to wail against those chains before a free people, knowing his words would fall on many deaf ears. His words were finally vindicated some 13 years later.

"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?"

I became quite emotional reading Douglass' description of how the slaves were treated. We often try to put ourselves in the shoes of others through reading, through hearing their stories and learning about their lives. But I don’t think it’s truly possible to comprehend the magnitude of hurt and indignity experienced at the hands of slavery, to truly know, from the inside out, how senseless and inhumane it all was.

***

I believe the sections “RELIGIOUS LIBERTY” and “THE CHURCH RESPONSIBLE” should be read in full. Douglass condemned American Christianity and the apparent hypocrisy of those who espouse the Christian religion while supporting slavery. As a Christian himself, Douglass was careful to distinguish “American Christianity”, which is riddled with hypocrisy and hate, from “true Christianity”, which appeals to reason, truth, justice, and forbearance:

“These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throne of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs. It is not that "pure and undefiled religion" which is from above, and which is "first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."

"You profess to believe “that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth,” and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred,) all men whose skins are not colored like your own."

"The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth."

"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. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher, of Brooklyn, Samuel J. May, of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that, upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slave's redemption from his chains."

Time and time again, Christianity is dragged through the mud by those committing horrible, unconscionable acts, bearing the name of Christianity but bearing none of its compassion, often contradicting the spirit of Christianity as something to be lived out earnestly and faithfully every day. The statue “Wolf-Sheep-Priest” by Deborah Sengl bears witness to this idea. It pains me to see this aspect of history repeat itself.

"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, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. 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. The Bible addresses all such persons as "scribes, pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy and faith."

"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 hypocrisy — a 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.”

***

Douglass, ultimately, ended his speech with hope. He recognized the nation's infancy and urged it to reverse course, and quickly. He looked forward to the day when African Americans could be regarded as fellow countrymen, as people who deserved humane and fair treatment, and who, too, could participate in the celebration of Independence Day with the same joy. What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? is an essential read, a look back to the past, and a warning for the future.

Other highlighted quotes:

On the 4th of July:
Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?

Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.

This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. 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. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?

On America’s infancy:
There is consolation in the thought that America is young. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. 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. As with rivers so with nations.

Principles:
With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression.

Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise.

On the Founding Fathers:
They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was "settled" that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were "final;" not slavery and oppression.

On America’s weaknesses:
I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. This is esteemed by some as a national trait — perhaps a national weakness.

Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.

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.

Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and American religion.

On injustices against African Americans:
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.

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans?

Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover.

Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. 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.

Fellow-citizens, this murderous traffic is, to-day, in active operation in this boasted republic. 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. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. My soul sickens at the sight.

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 man's liberty, hear only his accusers!

On American Christianity:
Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;" I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgement is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition?

O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.

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.

I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it.

But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Many of its most eloquent Divines, who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. 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! welcome atheism! welcome anything! in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny, and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke, put together, have done!

...But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains, stay there; and to the oppressor, oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man. 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.

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.

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.

Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. 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.

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. 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 nation—a system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty.

Ending on a hopeful note:
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. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,��� and the doom of slavery is certain.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delivered on July 5, 1852.

"At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. 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."


To think that Douglas was anything short of brilliant would be simply ridiculous. He displays compelling oratory and an inate ability to engage people's affections.

While Douglass's speech was especially important in its antebellum context, it remains powerful and applicable in many ways to this day. At the very least, it offers a helpful dose of perspective for an age where anything other than an explicit fawning over both the founding and current state of our nation is viewed as unpatriotic, if not treacherous.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s always good to rebuke self-congratulatory nationalism and moral hypocrisy.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This speech is evidence to the power of words that Frederick Douglass possessed. He is a very motivational speaker. I find myself ashamed that my country would inflict such injustices to those of a different race. His use of scriptures and famous quotations is remarkable, for a man who didn't have many opportunities for formal education. The context in which the scriptures are used is a very forceful tool for his argument.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, poignant, and pressing. This should be read by every American citizen, at every parade, picnic, and fireworks display on the fourth of July.

Read it here:
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/corete...

Listen to Douglass' descendants read excerpts here:
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/03/884832...

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought his denunciation of so-called Christian leaders and congregants for their support of slavery was both brave and right on. And the fact that he defended authentic Christianity made his point even more powerful. As did Christ in his condemnation of scribes and pharisees, Douglass denounced the so-called Christian hypocrisy in vivid terms. It was quite a speech!

[Thingdong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow wow wow. Completely demolished America in the time of slavery, but also mentioned things that are still applicable today. I was crying in the university canteen, which no other book has ever made me do, let alone a speech from the 19th century

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Douglass is a master of the persuasive English language.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best uses of rhetoric, and all for such an important cause.

[Tim Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful. Punchy. Persuasive. Prophetic.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

New favorite speech of all time!!! Yet another book that should be mandatory reading in American high school history and language arts classes. Not only for the work's historical significance to the country, but for Douglass's unparalleled use of different rhetorical strategies and literary devices to draw his audience in and deliver his message. This is a timeless piece of writing; the themes of liberation, justice, humanity, and hope carry forward to our present day affairs.

If someone in the modern-day wrote and presented this as their 4th of July speech, they would be at the least condemned, vilified, and shamed, and at the most violently silenced by means of arrest, injury, or death, for slandering the "great American spirit." I cannot begin to imagine Douglass delivering this in the 1850s to a country where his very existence as a free Black man was seen as a threat to the American way of life.

And now, a selection of my favorite passages from this work:

“They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny.”

“…men seldom eulogize the wisdom and virtues of their fathers, but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own.”

“Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery—the great sin and shame of America!”

“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. 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.”

“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.”

“The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one side; and ¢hat side, is the side of the oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. 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 man’s liberty, hear only his accusers!”

“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.”

“They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs.”

“Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. 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. You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the mere tools and body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina.”

“Oh! be warned! be warned! a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation’s bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and Jet the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever!”

Honorable mention - the entire last paragraph, where Douglass masterfully brings the speech full circle by imparting a message of hope onto his audience, emphasizing that nations rise and fall, and that one day America will know justice, and that knowledge will ultimately triumph over despotism, and "No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light."

[Raghad ElBashir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible speech by Douglass. His ability to seamlessly connect each point after another is not only a testament to his skill as an orator, but also the very essence of natural justice that he conveys as he rejects the necessity of “proving” slavery is bad. Douglass points out the hypocrisy of the United States as the most bloody and barbarous country for its daily actions regarding slavery and all its horrific brutalities. In the anthology, it notes his audience was of mixed races. The speech, though, almost seems to speak entirely to a white audience. He positions him, and the enslaved in general, on one side and then addresses whites as ‘you’. It’s interesting, though, how skillfully Douglass makes his arguments. He reasons that any man, who is not tainted my prejudice or who is not an enslaver, can find his words to be true. It compels the audience to desire to align with his arguments and ideas, despite the fact that many of them may very well have been racist. Douglass has an extremely intentional usage of language and rhetoric and he uses them brilliantly to convey just how insulting the celebration of the 4th of the July as Independence Day is to black Americans, who at the time still struggled for liberation from slavery and being afforded basic human dignity even when freed.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this speech in the context of discussing uncomfortable and imprecatory literature. Like Psalm 137 exclaiming to bless those who seize the enemy’s baby to violate them “against the rocks,” Douglass’ writing holds nothing back in its raw emotions.

How does one wrestle with such (just?) anger in the context of lament? How far can the raging depths go before it is not okay? These are hard questions this condemning speech makes hard to sit with. Without answers, the anathema daunts the sacred space in which injustice inhabits, regardless of sure hope that it turns righteous.

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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. 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 shout 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 hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Douglas states the answer in no uncertain terms;

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? 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. 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 hypocrisy — a 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.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This incredible speech was delivered during the 1850s after the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act. Frederick Douglass confronts the hypocrisy of our great freedom while millions are held as slaves. It is prophetic in the indictment of white Christians and churches that are not appalled by the sin and the attempt to use scripture to condone this sin. He reminded the listener how different this is from those believers in England like Wilberforce and Clarkson who fought to end slavery. I find it interesting that in less than 10 years, the Civil War would begin, and for over 100, the consequences of slavery would continue. Highly recommended and worth reading.

[Laney · Rating 5 out of 5]

“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim.”

“You profess to believe ‘that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth,’ and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own.”