Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. 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? WebOn January 9, 1894, at Washington, D.C.'s, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Frederick Douglass delivered his "The Lessons of the Hour" speech, which addressed the Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. But, such is not the state of the case. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground formen. WebOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Douglass was a powerful 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. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. 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.. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. 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? Who can reason on such a proposition? This 4th of July is yours, not mine. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. Oh! Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Read the full text below of the sage words from one of the greatest orators of all time. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. What? when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. They were great in their day and generation. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. 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.. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. Yea! And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. My soul sickens at the sight. 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. You may rejoice. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. 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 Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations history the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. During 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. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. All Rights Reserved. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. Follow the drove to New Orleans. Speech I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Frederick Douglass: (02:13) You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. 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, 1852, he was issuing a scathing indictment of American hypocrisy, Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy reminded readers. Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. 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. 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. Our Composite Nation: Frederick Douglass America 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? The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. There are 72 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 these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment. The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. 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. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Everywhere, in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave-trade, as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. Speech Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. They, that can, may. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion. Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read and write. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. O! 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! The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. We thank you for taking the time to watch this community reading of Frederick Douglasss What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Source: Blight, David. That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. But, to proceed. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. Travel through South America. The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority ofHimby whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teachthat we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. Under Title 17 U.S.C. 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. Fellow-citizens! 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. 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. 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.. WebIn December 1860, the great American orator and former slave Frederick Douglass delivered one of his finest speeches, A Plea for Free Speech in Boston. In it, he boldly declared that liberty is meaningless where the right to utter ones thoughts and It is, however, a notable fact that, while so much execration is poured out by Americans upon those engaged in the foreign slave-trade, the men engaged in the slave-trade between the states pass without condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. Fellow-citizens! The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness. Would you persuade more and rebuke less? Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. 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? We are called upon to prove that we are men. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. 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. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? You could instruct me in regard to them. 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. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. 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 duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. be warned! WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. 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. Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. Transcript Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? There is blasphemy in the thought. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) Oppression makes a wise man mad. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation Babylon, whose crimes towering up to heaven with thrown down by the breadth of the almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin. 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.