For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. The purpose of the event was to celebrate America's signing of the Declaration of Independence, 76 years before. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? David Harris: Douglass was known for his oratory and this speech is no exception. Douglass uses religious language in discussing Independence. Cling to this daycling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Across the country, people were thinking and arguing about slavery, abolitionism, and the future of the nation. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. And the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures, too. This is the greatest anti-slavery speech uttered by an American Frederick Douglass' Fifth of July Speech Asks 'What to the Slave is the It is actually quite longwe use an abridged version for our readingsbut despite its length it is at once riveting and concise. ROY: Douglass wrote the speech in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which effectively extended the reach of slave power in the South throughout the rest of the country. His message was well-received because they believed in what he was standing up for. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. What is his opinion of the American Founders? Noting the rapid changes in transportation and communication he insists that Space is comparatively annihilated. Toward the end of the Civil War he delivered a speech, "What the Black Man Wants," discussing what the nation should do to help the newly freed . There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. In Douglass's case, he was in a room with people who supported the ending of slavery. 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? The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. Shall exercise a lordly power, But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! And change into a faithful friend 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. 11th annual public reading of What to the slave is the Fourth of July? takes place on July 2nd at noon on Boston Common, Photo via the Harvard Gazette David Harris, managing director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School. It is neither. I generally try to avoid speculating about current or historical figures I dont know. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. Oh! Crowd of men and women during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, D.C., Aug.28, 1963, Get the latest information about timed passes and tips for planning your visit, Search the collection and explore our exhibitions, centers, and digital initiatives, Online resources for educators, students, and families, Engage with us and support the Museum from wherever you are, Find our upcoming and past public and educational programs, Learn more about the Museum and view recent news, National Archives and Records Administration, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. What is Frederick Douglass's overall claim in The Narrative of the Life Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? What is the main message of Douglass's speech? Frederick Douglass, "What the Black Man Wants" My original thought was a public reading prior to the holiday, which would prompt people to incorporate the speech or a discussion of its meaning in their holiday observations, whether in the back yard or the local library. 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!" The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. This is a particularly difficult time for any such return, given the lack of civility and acceptance of intolerance that characterize our public discourse starting with the president. On July 5, 1875, as Reconstruction brought its own fears, like violence from the Ku Klux Klan, Douglass shifted his speech for the day, asking, If war among the whites brought peace and liberty to the blacks, what will peace among the whites bring? But the 1852 What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? speech remains the best known of his addresses on the occasion, especially as it became even more widely read in the late-20th century, with events like the public readings sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council and a powerful reading by James Earl Jones in 2004. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. You have reached your limit of free articles. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? Nobody doubts it. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. In the second part of the speech, Douglass turns to the present and his own feelings about the 4th of July celebration. These rules are well established. In short, it gave the federal government an active role in maintaining the Souths system of slavery. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! that he is the rightful owner of his own body? From what point of view does he look at it? There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. Convicted terrorists will be banned from taking a leading role in religious services and face more rigorous checks for extremist literature. I have been thinking a lot about these two and have discovered that it is also the 400th anniversary of the first instance of representative government in Jamestown. The headings in brackets have been supplied by the editor to guide your reading as have the questions after each section. 838 Words. It gave me such a surge of hope that the event could bring together such divergent groups. Two years before Douglass' famed speech, the U.S. government passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required runaway slaves to be returned to their owners. They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro - CliffsNotes In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the 'lame man leap as an hart. Harvard Law Today recently interviewed David Harris, managing director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, the events cosponsor, about the public reading and the continued relevance of Douglass words. 'Don't get in our way,' Harris urges in speech at Howard University God speed the hour, the glorious hour, In July of 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech titled "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?," a call for the promise of liberty be applied equally to all Americans. Throughout this speech, as well as his life, Douglass advocated equal justice and rights, as well as citizenship, for blacks. He concedes, however, that the main purpose of his speech is not to give praise and thanks to these men, for he says that the deeds of those patriots are well known. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? Host called senior colleague a C-word in text message obtained by lawyers as part of Dominion lawsuit Tucker Carlson's firing from Fox News came after he used vulgar language to describe a . 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. 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 ciphering, 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 Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men! Douglass printed the speech in his newspaper, Frederick Douglass' Paper, and published 700 copies of it in pamphlet form. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. We would be well advised to ponder Douglasss speech as we frame this conversation. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! Thats a tough one for me. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. But such is not the state of the case. And wear the yoke of tyranny There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work The downfall of slavery. How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! You may rejoice, I must mourn.. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. ROY: The event that were doing in Somerville puts pressure on whitewashed conceptions of the Fourth of July, as many people to this day still view it as a celebration of American food, fireworks, and freedom. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion. I am also hosting a summer reading and discussion series called Race, Fragility, and Anti-Racism through the Somerville Museum and the City on a Hill network of local churches. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. The country was in the midst of crises over fugitive slave rescues in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Frederick Douglass' Fourth of July speech, then and now: A Q&A with Obviously, the speech has taken a much darker meaning in the Age of [President Donald] Trump. GAZETTE: This is your second year as host of Reading Frederick Douglass Together in Somerville. This speech is now remembered as oneof Douglass' most poignant. Tucker Carlson's vulgar language in texts contributed to Fox News He begins by praising the young nation and its origins in righteous protest against oppression by a tyrannical monarch. To what other elements in the American political tradition does he appeal? Frederick Douglass Speech On The Fourth Of July Revisited In - NPR Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass National Historic Site (U.S In the early 1850s, tensions over slavery were high across the county. Has the public reading of the speech each year on Boston Commonor the experience or meaning of itchanged over the years? The fact of slavery ruins the celebrations of the Fourth of July. So, all these years later, our massive system of incarceration echoes Douglasss charge that, 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. This is not to say there are not tyrannical regimes elsewhere in the world or that other nations do not abuse human rights, but it is the self-righteousness of our celebration in the midst of ongoing injustice that continues to resonate today. 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. 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 hypocrisya thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. That first year, 2009, was also President Obamas first year in office. (modern), Frederick Douglas addressing an English audience during his visit to London in 1846., Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. O! Can you tell me about the origins of the Reading Frederick Douglas Together project? The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. This year we mark both the 400th anniversary of the arrival of captive Africans to the British colonies and the 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. There should be no shoulder that does not bear the burden of the government. He had a prophetic vision for the future that he was always trying to work toward. 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. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! She can speak not only to Douglass' historical importance but to the urgency and relevancy of his message in today's . They were great men toogreat enough to give fame to a great age. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. In some ways, the first part of the speech is a traditional patriotic speech. Why is this speech still relevant today? As with any great oration, Douglass builds to his point, which is to distinguish between the spirit of celebration typically surrounding the holiday and the misery suffered by enslaved people on that day and every day. When the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester, N.Y., invited Douglass to give a July 4 speech in 1852, Douglass opted to speak on July 5 instead. Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. The Act also denied suspected slaves trial by jury or even the ability to testify on their own behalf in court. On top of his federal work, Douglass kept a vigorous speaking tour schedule. Now, take the constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. The above audio (11:35) can be used with the following section of Frederick Douglass's speech. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglasss life and the evolution of his thought in this period. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour. The above audio reading by actor Ossie Davis can be used alongside the full text of Frederick Douglass's speech delivered on July 5, 1852 at Corinthian Hall to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. Why Frederick Douglass Matters - History Cambridge, MA 02138, 2022 The President and Fellows of Harvard College, International Legal Studies & Opportunities, Syllabi, Exam and Course Evaluation Archive, Sign Up for the Harvard Law Today Newsletter, Consumer Information (ABA Required Disclosures). I recall seeing a group of young blonde-haired children standing at the wall overlooking the reading as a group of late adolescents and young men sat on the adjacent steps on a lunch break from their work with YouthBuild. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart." Alison Drasner, the project coordinator for the Somerville Museum, teamed up with Dave Ortega at the Somerville Media Center to prerecord voices of 50 Somerville residents, including my 7-year-old daughter, Charlotte, to read sections of the speech. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. Until that year, day, hour, arrive,With head, and heart, and hand Ill strive,To break the rod, and rend the gyve,The spoiler of his prey deprive So witness Heaven!And never from my chosen post,Whateer the peril or the cost.
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