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Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the church and ministry of the country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to fight or flee. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! He can bring no witnesses for himself. that it should be so; yet so it is. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away. In an 1868 speech, he said, No man should be excluded from the government on the basis of his color, no woman on account of her sex. 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! there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. Yea! The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. There is blasphemy in the thought. The4th of July is the first great fact in your nation's history the very ringbolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destinyPride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetualremembrance. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. 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. Worksheet Excerpt Analyzing Rhetorical Devices in "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?": Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. The Oratory of Fr. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. 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. Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" in 1852, drawing parallels between the Revolutionary War and the fight to abolish slavery. They inhabit all our Southern States. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. Is that a question for Republicans? Kate Harris Date Published September 28, 2016 Last Modified November 14, 2021 Description. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. welcome atheism! 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. I will not. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Rhetorical Analysis Of Harvey Fourth Of July. Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglass's life and the evolution of his thought in this period. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. 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. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appearedmen, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. Interview was lightly edited for clarity and length. 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.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.In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; but how, we ask, could such a thing be done? The occasion was the Society's Fourth of July celebration, but Douglass refused to give the speech on July 4; he would not celebrate the holiday so long as African Americans remained enslaved. Douglass details the hardships past Americans once endured when they were members of British colonies and validates their feelings of ill treatment. "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" remains one of the most effective and poignant condemnations of slavery in the canon of American abolitionist literature, a tribute to the moral character and oratorical skills of Frederick Douglass. There should be no shoulder that does not bear the burden of the government. He had a prophetic vision for the future that he was always trying to work toward. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a by word to a mocking earth. Easel Activity. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. During the Civil War, Douglass said that since Massachusetts had been the first state to join the Patriot cause during the American Revolutionary War, black men should go to Massachusetts to enlist in the Union Army. Douglass denounces the churches for betraying their own biblical and Christian values. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now denounced is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States; that the right to hold and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic. [20]:346 To prove evidence of these inconsistencies, as one historian noted, during the speech Douglass claims that the United States Constitution is an abolitionist document and not a pro-slavery document.[22][23][24]. Douglass says that if the residents of America believe that slaves are "men",[20]:342 they should be treated as such. 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. 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! [5] American studies professor Andrew S. Bibby argues that because many of the editions produced for educational use are abridged, they often misrepresent Douglass's original through omission or editorial focus. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. I am also hosting a summer reading and discussion series called Race, Fragility, and Anti-Racism through the Somerville Museum and the City on a Hill network of local churches. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. Must we allow symbols of racism on public land? Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers. ROY: Douglass wrote the speech in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which effectively extended the reach of slave power in the South throughout the rest of the country. The anti-slavery movement there was 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 or a hostile position towards that movement. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. Yea! [10] Douglass had spoken at Corinthian Hall in the past. In spite of his praise of the Founding Fathers, he maintains that slaves owe nothing to and have no positive feelings towards the founding of the United States. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. Not everyone. nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, the slave plantation, from which I escaped, and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you, This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. He implored the Rochester, N.Y., audience to think about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday celebrating freedom. It was fashionable, hundreds of years ago, for the children of Jacob to boast, we have Abraham to our father, when they had long lost Abrahams faith and spirit. To honor Black History Month, as an introduction or review of rhetorical appeals and devices, or as a speech exemplar, this Frederick Douglass "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" rhetoric activity is a fabulous addition to any lesson. Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. 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.In the deep still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead heavy footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door. 4th period Mrs. Landrew Fredrick Douglass Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a prominent activist, author and public speaker. 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. He argues that the Constitution does not permit slavery, contrary to the claims of contemporary defenders of the institution. Follow the drove to New Orleans. In the end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more. But its quite another to change the way you see yourself and to grow into a person deeply committed to long-term interracial coalition building. He thinks they were extremely intelligent, and the thinks it is admirable that when they realized they were oppressed by Britain, they rebelled. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 19:31. 2. was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. 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? A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal!And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. 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. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. You will see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. 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 crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. $ 3.60. He is outraged by the lack of responsibility and indifference towards slavery that many sects have taken around the nation. 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. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. These rules are well established. a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nations 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 let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever!But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now denounced is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States; that the right to hold and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic.Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. In "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Frederick Douglass sought not only to convince people of the wrongfulness of slavery but also to make abolition more acceptable to Northern whites. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. He validates the feelings of injustice the Founders felt then juxtaposes their experiences with vivid descriptions of the harshness of slavery.[21]. He describes the legislation as "tyrannical," and believes that it is in "violation of justice.". Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! [4], The speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. What will this years event be like? They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. Cling to this daycling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight, Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline, With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. [8] Frederick Douglass had moved to Rochester in 1847 in order to publish his newspaper The North Star. Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cuminabridge the fight 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. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. Essentially, Douglass criticizes his audience's pride for a nation that claims to value freedom though it is composed of people who continuously commit atrocities against Blacks. 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