what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation

For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. He talks about how Americans are proud of their country and their religion and how they rejoice in the name of freedom and liberty and yet they do not offer those things to millions of their country's residents. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a by word to a mocking earth. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! 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. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! 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. Knowledge is becoming more readily available, Douglass said, and soon the American people will open their eyes to the atrocities they have been inflicting on their fellow Americans. He faults America for utter hypocrisy and betrayal of those values in maintaining the institution of slavery. I doubt if there be another nation on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. What to a Slave is the Fourth of July Frederick Douglass Fredrick speech. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 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. [16][17] Finally, the Act did not allow the accused individual of defending themselves in court. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. Is that a question for Republicans? There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. You know what is a swine-drover? 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, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. 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? My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. 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.Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. At the same time, we need to be studying the history of slavery and racism in this country so we can build policies, practices, and procedures that address the present problems with those historical inequities in mind. The Fugitive Slave Law makes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. The Bible addresses all such persons as scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. official permission or approval. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July | Historical Context The Colonial regime paved way for the transportation of slaves from different parts of the world, mostly from the African continent to work in southern states of America on cash crop plantations that generated a great source of income. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. 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. "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? 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. Douglass believed that slavery could be eliminated with the support of the church, and also with the reexamination of what the Bible was actually saying. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. The 4th of July Address, delivered in Corinthian Hall, by Frederick Douglass, is published on good paper, and makes a neat pamphlet of forty pages. Genius is the ultimate source of music knowledge, created by scholars like you who share facts and insight about the songs and artists they love. To the slave, Douglass tells the audience, "your 4th of July is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license [for enslaving blacks] . welcome atheism! 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 slaverythe great sin and shame of America! These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour.Fellow-citizens! . He took action to raise the voices of others and to aid their work on the national stage, especially that of two Black women in the last half of the 19th century. [10] Douglass had spoken at Corinthian Hall in the past. 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. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose, a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country.Fellow-citizens! [13] Although the import of people directly from Africa had been banned in 1807,[14] the domestic slave trade, still legal, was thriving. Youll never experience a black hole, but Avi Loeb can help you imagine one, We need individual events like reading Douglass, but we also need to be thinking about ways to extend this conversation over the long term., Level of cannabis use could determine post-op outcomes, Historian says Fla. dispute shows why AP class in African American studies is needed, Why Church Committee alums urged new House panel to avoid partisanship, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, Rewriting history to include all of it this time. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations historythe very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. In short, it gave the federal government an active role in maintaining the Souths system of slavery. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Products. 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. In a Fourth of July holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. 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! Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? He implored the Rochester, N.Y., audience to think about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday celebrating freedom. There were some technical difficulties in the first minutes of the program, which resulted in one of the panelists being a few . For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. we wept when we remembered Zion. 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. ROY:One of the things that Douglass writings shows us is that he believed in amplifying a variety of voices. The well-known speech was previously known as The Meaning of July the Fourth for the Negro. Later, the speech was re-titled based on Douglasss question, What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?. be warned! GAZETTE: What is the historical setting for this speech, and why did Douglass focus on the Fourth of July? O! The manhood of the slave is conceded. In July of 1852, Frederick Douglass prepares a speech known as The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro. 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. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. [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. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. Douglass then discusses the internal slave trade in America. How should I look to-day, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? was delivered in the decade preceding the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. 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. On the 2d of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. [17] This act drew the ire of the abolitionist movement,[9] and was directly criticized by Douglass in his speech. 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. He thinks they were extremely intelligent, and the thinks it is admirable that when they realized they were oppressed by Britain, they rebelled. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. [11] Additionally, he had spoken there less than three months prior to this speech, on March 25. In a Fourth of July holiday special, we hear the words of Frederick Douglass. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. 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. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Sydney Smith tells us that men seldom eulogize the wisdom and virtues of their fathers, but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own. 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. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Douglass declares that true freedom can not exist in America if Black people are still enslaved there and is adamant that the end of slavery is near. Douglass was a former slave of the 19th century and soon became a leader during the Abolitionist Movement. Frederick Douglass, ca 1855, Metropolitan Museum of Art. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. 2. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? [4], Noted for its biting irony and bitter rhetoric, and acute textual analysis of the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Christian Bible, the speech is among the most widely known of all of Douglass's writings. The price of men, he had spoken there less than three months prior to this speech, and by! Spoken there less than gratitude, prompt you to chain of your yet undeveloped destiny they may sometimes in... Number their years by thousands the slave, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to slavery! You to as well as on the part of the slave the abolition of slavery and a by to., is what to the slave is the fourth of july annotation the present my right hand forget her cunning which in! Your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen why did Douglass focus on part... 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