"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July"
On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave a speech at an event commemorating
the signing of the Declaration of Independence, held at Rochester's Corinthian Hall. It was biting oratory, in which the speaker told his audience, "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." And he asked them, "Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?" Within the now-famous address is what historian Philip S. Foner has called "probably the most moving passage in all of Douglass' speeches" (pbs.org). What to the American slave is your Fourth of July 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. 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 denunciation 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's thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. 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. - Frederick Douglass |
Examples of his Passion, Logic and PowerOther important speeches found at the Library of Congress include:
· “The Church and Prejudice” (11/4/1841) · “The Nature of Slavery” (12/1/1850) · “The Inhumanity of Slavery” (12/8/1850) · “The Internal Slave Trade” (7/5/1852) · “The Anti-Slavery Movement” (1855) · “Fighting Rebels with Only One Hand” (9/1861) · “What the Black Man Wants” (1865) · “Self-Made Men”(1872) · “The Race Problem” (10/21/1890) · “John Brown” (5/30/1881) · “Lessons of the Hour” (1/9/1894) Source: assumption.edu |
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File Size: | 748 kb |
File Type: | exe |