frederick douglass speech transcript frederick douglass speech transcript

On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. 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. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. I will show you a man-drover. Create a better, more engaging experience for every student. 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. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. 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. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. You could instruct me in regard to them. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! WebDescription. 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. You may rejoice, I must mourn.. 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. Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. One of the parts of the speech that resonates with me the most is when Douglass says: What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. 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. 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 or to write. WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglasss life and the evolution of his thought in this period. Short bio of Frederick Douglass The Frederick Douglass Papers Library of Congress 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! Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and sermons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling and universal interest a nations jubilee. 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. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. The time for such argument is past. 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. As with rivers so with nations. He can bring no witnesses for himself. Fellow-citizens! The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. The time was when such could be done. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. 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? 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. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. There is not a nation of the earth, guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. The Bible addresses all such persons as scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe ofmint, anise,andcumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.. Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. 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! had I the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. 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. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. But, such is not the state of the case. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. 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. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. The din of business, too, is hushed. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. 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. 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. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! You may rejoice. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. 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! Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) 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. 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. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. Frederick Douglass: (02:13) It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. welcome anything! Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. And yet not one word shall escape me that any man whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice or who is not at heart, a slaveholder shall not confess to be right and just. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. In the language of Isaiah, the American church might be well addressed, Bring no more vain ablations; incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? 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. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade, as it exists, at this moment, in the ruling part of the United States. 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. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. 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? Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. 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. Nobody doubts it. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. 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. 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. 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. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you. 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. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. Fellow-citizens! There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. will be found by Americans. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slaves point of view. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. 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. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. 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.