Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. 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. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. 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: This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. 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. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. 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. Many of you understand them better than I do. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. 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. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. Who can reason on such a proposition? Frederick Douglass Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. 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? Is it at the gateway? This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. They inhabit all our Southern States. To do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. Frederick Douglass July Fourth Speech Full Text: Read Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. 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? There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) 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.. They that can, may; I cannot. Celebrating Frederick Douglass through Transcription The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. 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. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? - Wikipedia I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. By that act, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globeand it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. I am not that man. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent African-American professional men in celebration of the twenty-first anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.After the toast provided by former Senator Blanche K. Bruce, Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. 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. Suicide Note Revealed After Shocking Death, Mississippi Cops Beat, Waterboarded Handcuffed Black Men, Shot 1 For Dating White Women': Lawyers, Indicted! You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. 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. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. And am I therefore called upon to bring our humble offering to the national alter and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. 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. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and the appellation, probably, conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to some of our old politicians. Born to an enslaved family in 1818, Frederick Douglass never knew his actual birthday, a fact not uncommon for those enslaved. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. 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, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. Our Composite Nation: Frederick Douglass America This, however, did not answer the purpose. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Go search where you will. 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 How unlike the politicians of an hour! 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. welcome anything! That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices under an open and palpablebribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty,hear only his accusers! They have all been taught in your common schools, narrated at your firesides, unfolded from your pulpits, and thundered from your legislative halls, and are as familiar to you as household words. WATCH VIDEO: Should Black Americans Celebrate Independence Day? The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. 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. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. Morel is right that the 1876 speech by Frederick Douglass is remarkable and masterful. They, that can, may. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror. 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. We need the storm. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, 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! Frederick Douglass: (08:30) This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. He can bring no witnesses for himself. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. 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. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. 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. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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? Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! Frederick Douglass delivered 'best Fourth of July speech in Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. 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. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. WebIn the late 1860sat a moment of great hope for the promise of equality under the lawthe famed orator and once-enslaved abolitionist Frederick Douglass took his Our Composite Nation speech on the road to argue for a plural American democracy. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. 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. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; 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. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Frederick Douglass 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. 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. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. What? In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. Frederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. Frederick Douglass, circa 1879. Difference between Rittenhouse and McMichael-Bryan verdicts? 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. The madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even by England; but we fear the lesson is wholly lost on our present ruler. 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! The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. When the dogs in your street, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea and the reptiles that crawl shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then I will argue with you that the slave is a man. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. What, 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 irons, 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? Web" was a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery 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. Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a 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. What then remains to be argued? He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. 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. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. I must mourn. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. Many of its most eloquent Divines. That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. Mark them! The text of Frederick Douglasss most famous speech, given in 1852, What, to a slave, is the Fourth of July? A chapter describing Douglasss early encounters with abolitionists, from his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom, 1857. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a social reformer and advocate, abolitionist, orator, writer, minister, and statesman. I am not included within the pales of this glorious anniversary. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. 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. "The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass 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. Frederick Douglass: (07:35) But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. 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. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. 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! The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. 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. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. 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! What, to the American Slave, Is Your If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. 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. I repeat, I am glad this is so. or is it in the temple? Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. 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. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Oration by Frederick Douglass, delivered on the occasion of the 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. I will not. 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? Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. 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? He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. Would you argue more and denounce less? By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground formen. I will use the severest language I can command. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. 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. 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! For it is not light that is needed, but fire. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, thenwill I argue with you that the slave is a man! Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. Sign up for NewsOne's email newsletter! 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. Like our content? The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! Oppression makes a wise man mad. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! Travel through South America. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. Frederick Douglass: (01:08) You were under the British Crown. They are plain, common-sense rules, such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply, without having passed years in the study of law. Frederick Douglass speech - PBS They were great in their day and generation. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Discover why Rev is the #1 speech-to-text service in the world. 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.
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