speech I am not included within the pales of this glorious anniversary. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. I will not equivocate. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. Further, if this demand were not complied with, another Scotland would be added to the history of religious liberty, and the stern old Covenanters would be thrown into the shade. 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. They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. He can bring no witnesses for himself. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! But now is the time, the important time. 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? "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Speech Transcript Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. I repeat, I am glad this is so. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. 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. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? Read the full text below of the sage words from one of the greatest orators of all time. 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. 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. I was born amid such sights and scenes. They, that can, may. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. 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 anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. This truth is not a doubtful one. That he is the rightful owner of his own body? Speech-to-Text API for pre-recorded audio, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition engine. I will not excuse. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Many of you understand them better than I do. 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.. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. The time was when such could be done. will be found by Americans. As with rivers so with nations. Oration by Frederick Douglass, delivered on the occasion of the They inhabit all our Southern States. They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you. 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. 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. 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. Speech Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christians God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men! The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. But, such is not the state of the case. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Though a biting A Nation's Story: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. They were great in their day and generation. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Frederick Douglass Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. 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. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! They were not the men to look back. Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations Jubilee when the chains of servitude have been torn from his limbs? In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. 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! Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. speech I leave, therefore, the great deeds of your fathers to other gentlemen whose claim to have been regularly descended will be less likely to be disputed than mine! Travel through South America. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. This, however, did not answer the purpose. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. 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. 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. Sign up for NewsOne's email newsletter! 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. in preference to the gospel,as preached by those Divines! You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a threepenny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard-earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers of your country. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. Is that a question for Republicans? 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. It is fashionable to do so; but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried mens souls. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) Oh! Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Juneteenth Reading List: 10 Books To Learn More About Black Independence Day, Your email will be shared with newsone.com and subject to its, 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, . A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout We have Washington toour father. Alas! Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. Frederick Douglass: (09:38) Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) the internal slave trade. It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. 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! be warned! This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Oppression makes a wise man mad. Speech If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. 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.. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. be warned! On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. 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. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills, headed CASH FOR NEGROES. To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted Liberty, an unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? What would be thought of an instrument, drawn up, legally drawn up, for the purpose of entitling the city of Rochester to a track of land, in which no mention of land was made? But, to proceed. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? They that can, may; I cannot. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. 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 The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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. 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. 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, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. WebIn this speech, Frederick Douglass reflected on how the outpouring of joy at the conclusion of the Civil War turned to mourning with Lincolns assassination. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion. 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. 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 scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. 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 I fancy, I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression upon the public mind. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. 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 need the storm. Would you argue more and denounce less? 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? 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. Your President, your Secretary of State, ourlords,nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing.
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