About What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? [15], In the United States, the speech is widely taught in history and English classes in high school and college. The speech has since been published under the above title in The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One, Vol. [3] The speech is perhaps the most widely known of all of Frederick Douglass' writings save his autobiographies. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT.
It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. America is a country of transformation. He talks about how they, being 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. "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?
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. However, there is hope, he contends. Introduction to What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? He sees this looking the other way as a tacit agreement with the idea of slavery. 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.[8]:344. "[1][2] is the title now given to a speech by Frederick Douglass delivered on July 5, 1852, in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York, addressing the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. is the title now given to a speech by Frederick Douglass delivered on July 5, 1852, in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York, addressing the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. An editor
[16][17] The head of the organization responsible for the memorial speculated that it was vandalized in response to the removal of Confederate monuments in the wake of the George Floyd protests.[18]. Summary, Read the Study Guide for What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?…. The paragraphing referenced here is taken from an edition of the speech at, African Americans In Congress: A Documentary History, by Eric Freedman and Stephen A, Jones, 2008, p. 39, https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/, "Activist Public Relations and the Paradox of the Positive: A Case Study of Frederick Douglass's Fourth of July Address", The American Constitutional Experience: Selected Readings & Supreme Court Opinions, "Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July", "American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present", Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings, "Frederick Douglass Statue Torn Down On Anniversary Of Famous Speech", "Frederick Douglass statue torn down in Rochester, N.Y., on anniversary of his famous Fourth of July speech", "Frederick Douglass statue torn down on anniversary of great speech", A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Frederick Douglass' Descendants Deliver His 'Fourth of July' Speech, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, The Heroic Slave, a heartwarming Narrative of the Adventures of Madison Washington, in Pursuit of Liberty, American Anti-Slavery Society 1843 lecture tour, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, List of things named after Frederick Douglass, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F&oldid=986710621, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
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.[7]. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? The men who fought seventy years earlier felt enslaved to their British masters, and felt strongly enough about gaining their own independence and rights that they were willing to give their lives for the cause. He implored the Rochester, N.Y., audience to think about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday celebrating freedom. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away. The British accomplished this through religion or more specifically, the church.
Many copies of one section of it, beginning in para. Is slavery among them? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?...What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?
Douglass equates this to being worse than many other things that are banned, in particular, books and plays that are banned for infidelity. In this respect, Douglass' views converged with that of Abraham Lincoln's[12] in that those politicians who were saying that the Constitution was a justification for their beliefs in regard to slavery were doing so dishonestly. Many copies of one section of it, beginning in para. Once the colony of a distant monarch, America now stands proudly in her own right. Not affiliated with Harvard College.
[14] After the Civil War, Douglass said that "we" had achieved a great thing by gaining American independence during the American Revolutionary War, though he said it was not as great as what was achieved by the Civil War. He is outraged by the lack of responsibility and indifference towards slavery that many sects have taken around the nation. [6], —Advertisement for the pamphlet of Douglass' speech from the July 12, 1852 edition of Frederick Douglass' Paper (formerly The North Star). [8]:345, It is said that America is built on the idea of liberty and freedom, but Douglass tells his audience that more than anything, it is built on inconsistencies and hypocrisies that have been overlooked for so long they appear to be truths.