Frederick Douglass: (09:38) Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. 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. 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. Fair use is permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of Liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems were inhuman mockery in sacrilegious irony. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. 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. My soul sickens at the sight. I am not that man. that it should be so; yet so it is. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. 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. 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. That point is conceded already. 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. The time for such argument is passed. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. Many of its most eloquent Divines. Read the full text below of the sage words from one of the greatest orators of all time. Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory. WATCH VIDEO: Should Black Americans Celebrate Independence Day? Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests. During 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. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. 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. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. No! The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! I will not excuse. 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. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! You glory in your refinement and your universal education yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful as ever stained the character of a nation a system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now. You profess to believe that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth, and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own. WebIn December 1860, the great American orator and former slave Frederick Douglass delivered one of his finest speeches, A Plea for Free Speech in Boston. In it, he boldly declared that liberty is meaningless where the right to utter ones thoughts and Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. But, such is not the state of the case. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. 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! It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. With them, nothing was settled that was not right. Speech-to-Text API for pre-recorded audio, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition engine. 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! There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. welcome atheism! To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. 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. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. I will not equivocate. The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. 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. 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. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. 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. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide His own testimony is nothing. 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. Americans! Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Frederick Douglass: (03:37) 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. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; and how such men can be supported, as the standing types and representatives of Jesus Christ, is a mystery which I leave others to penetrate. You may well cherish the memory of such men. In a very telling sign, the fateful words of Frederick Douglass from a speech he delivered 170 years ago still resonate very much in 2022 as Black people in America continue the fight for the same kind of equality that the legendary abolitionist was demanding back in the mid-19th century. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Oppression makes a wise man mad. be warned! Under Title 17 U.S.C. 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. They were great in their day and generation. 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. That point is conceded already. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 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. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. You may rejoice. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. You were under the British Crown. 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. Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, newspaper publisher, and respected abolitionist. Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. 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! The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. 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, Though a biting It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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. WebOn December 3, 1860, Frederick Douglass and a group of fellow abolitionists met at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston for a discussion centered around the following Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. 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. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream, that seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul! 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. 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. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slaves redemption from his chains. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. 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. But I fancy, I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression upon the public mind. will be found by Americans. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. 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. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. 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. Would you argue more and denounce less? This 4th of July is yours, not mine. A RESTful API to access Revs workforce of fast, high quality transcriptionists and captioners. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times. But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. 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.. To do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. I will not. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. It was fashionable, hundreds of years ago, for the children of Jacob to boast, we have Abraham to our father, when they had long lost Abrahams faith and spirit. It is neither. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. Is that a question for Republicans? be warned! Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. 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! The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. 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 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. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. 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. 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? We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. 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. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. 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. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. 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 What? 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. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. 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. That year will come, and freedoms reign. You have already declared it. 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? 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. I cannot. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. It was, Milloy continued, a critique of a nation that claimed to hold dear the principles of freedom, justice and equality even as it enslaved black people.. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. What, then, remains to be argued? The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your shouts of Liberty and equality, hallow mocked, your prayers and hymns your sermons and Thanksgivings with all your religious parade in solemnity are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, a thin veil to cover up crimes, which would disgrace a nation of savages. Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. You will see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? We are called upon to prove that we are men. Is slavery among them? I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills, headed CASH FOR NEGROES. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation Babylon, whose crimes towering up to heaven with thrown down by the breadth of the almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin. 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, 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 Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, iswrong? The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. I am not included within the pales of this glorious anniversary. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! Is it not astonishing that while we are plowing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metal of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold, that while we are reading, writing, and ciphering acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers that we are engaged in all the enterprises, common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planting, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all confessing and worshiping the Christian God and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave. 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. You may rejoice, I must mourn.. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. I will use the severest language I can command. A John Knox would be seen at every church door, and heard from every pulpit, and Fillmore would have no more quarter than was shown by Knox, to the beautiful, but treacherous queen Mary of Scotland. Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student. Where these are, man is not sacred. WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. in preference to the gospel,as preached by those Divines! They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken?

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