The country was in the midst of crises over fugitive slave rescues in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. . 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Douglass’ speech also foreshadowed the bloody reckoning to come: Civil War. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. The message wasn’t new — Douglass promoted those ideas year-round — but Blight says he knew the Fourth of July was a good hook, and expected the speech to be a hit. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Duration: 1 hour, 29 minutes, 50 seconds. Fellow-citizens! . A Community Reading: Frederick Douglass's "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July." Juan González: Mainstream Media Has Missed the Real Story About Latinx Voter Turnout, “A Tremendous Jump for Progressive Forces”: Puerto Rico Election Signals End of Two-Party Dominance, Dahlia Lithwick: Trump’s Ridiculous Coup Attempt Will Fail, But It Will Hurt Democracy in Long Run, As U.S. Faces Out-of-Control Pandemic, Pfizer Raises Hope for Vaccine, But Many Questions Remain. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. . . Did you know that you can get Democracy Now! By an act of the American Congress,[2] not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. . Douglass delivered this speech to the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester, New York on the meaning and significance of the Fourth of July to the slave. Frederick Douglass (c. 1818–1895) was born a slave. 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 slaveholding; 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. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. 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. . . For those who feel that way, July 5 may be an easier day to celebrate: on that day in 1827, 4,000 African Americans paraded down Broadway in New York City to celebrate the end of slavery in their state. That point is conceded already. There is blasphemy in the thought. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Speaking on July 5, the day after Independence Day (something Douglass had insisted upon), and before a predominantly white audience, Douglass eloquently explained why the Fourth of July was not a holiday celebrated by slaves, former slaves, or their descendants. “He would use the Fourth of July for its irony over and over and over, just like the Declaration of Independence is used to remind the country of its potential and promise, and to him, race was always the measure of that,” he says. So while the U.S. tends to go all out celebrating freedom on the Fourth of July, alternate independence commemorations held a day later often draw attention to a different side of that story, with readings of the Frederick Douglass speech best known today as “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, he gave one of his most famous speeches, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. . 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. Th’ oppress’d shall vilely bend the knee, Like brutes no more. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. Take the American slave trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. 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 speech shows the moral outrage that powered the abolition movement and made it so threatening to Southern slave holders, but also to anyone willing to tolerate or ignore slavery. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? . The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. . (In this speech, for example, Douglass excoriated America’s churches.) Read its preamble, consider its purposes. is a 501(c)3 non-profit news organization. That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. 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?…, I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. 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. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slave-holding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. . Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? . In his views on slavery and the Constitution, how does Douglass differ from his fellow abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (“On the Constitution and the Union”, ) and from Abraham Lincoln (Speech on the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”, Documents in Detail: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, Great American Debates: Frederick Douglass vs. William Lloyd Garrison, Chapter 6: Revolutionary Considerations of Citizenship and Self-Government. AMY GOODMAN: In this holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a glorious liberty document. To some, celebrations of American independence on July 4 are a reminder of the country’s hypocrisy on the matter of freedom, as slavery played a key role in the nation’s history; even today, America’s history of racism is still being written, while other forms of modern-day slavery persist in the U.S. and around the world.

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