Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. 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. we wept when we remembered Zion. 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. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. A John Knox would be seen at every church door, and heard from every pulpit, and Fillmore would have no more quarter than was shown by Knox, to the beautiful, but treacherous queen Mary of Scotland. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. 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? Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. I lived on Philpot Street, Fells Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves, the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. 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. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Speech Transcript Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cumin abridge the right to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. Fromwhat quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? - Wikipedia The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. From police shootings to the wage gap to crippling stereotypes (and everything in between), there are too many parallels today with what Douglass described in his speech to white America, including this relevant line: This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. 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 ions, 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? It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. No! The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. Space is comparatively annihilated. 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. Frederick Douglass What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? 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. 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? We are called upon to prove that we are men. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent African-American professional men in celebration of the twenty-first anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.After the toast provided by former Senator Blanche K. Bruce, 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. Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God. In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: Th oppressd shall vilely bend the knee. I am not that man. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have Speech While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. Is that a question for Republicans? 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. Frederick Douglass: (10:31) What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Frederick Douglass: (06:03) May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. 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. be warned! Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. 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. But now is the time, the important time. Frederick Douglass: (02:13) The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most sacrilegious and shocking and would make me a reproach before God and the world. Its the news, without the news. They that can, may; I cannot. Under Title 17 U.S.C. Then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful? The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. I repeat, I am glad this is so. 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. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. 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. 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 petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Frederick Douglass The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. 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. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. 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. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. Frederick Douglass July Fourth Speech Full Text: Read 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 and question and to denounce with all the emphasis I can command everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. 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? 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. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. He can bring no witnesses for himself. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. 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. When a sufficient number have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile, or to New Orleans.