frederick douglass speech transcript

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. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. 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. I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. or is it in the temple? You live and must die, and you must do your work. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. 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. No! Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. Nobody doubts it. I am not that man. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. You may well cherish the memory of such men. Then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful? Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. The din of business, too, is hushed. 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? The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. 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. Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when he declared that There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. The testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. 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. In the text it states, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave- we are called upon to prove that we are men? (Douglas 763). Many of its most eloquent Divines. President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. Yet they persevered. But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. 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 speaking of it, relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! I was born amid such sights and scenes. Travel through South America. Read the full text below of the sage words from one of the greatest orators of all time. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. 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. Who can reason on such a proposition? Let this damning fact be perpetually told. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion. Born to an enslaved family in 1818, Frederick Douglass never knew his actual birthday, a fact not uncommon for those enslaved. speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. 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. Short bio of Frederick Douglass The Frederick Douglass Papers Library of Congress Celebrating Frederick Douglass through Transcription 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, With head, and heart, and hand Ill strive, 8 Times Obama Showed Trump How Presidents Are Supposed To Celebrate The Fourth Of July, Welcome To The Cookout: 10 Lit Movies To Watch During July Fourth Holiday Weekend, 'Dilbert' Comic Creator Calls Black People A 'Hate Group,' Urges Segregation So Whites Can 'Escape', Bernie Mac Show Star Camille Winbush Is Not Ashamed Of Joining OnlyFans, Kyle Rittenhouse Faces 2nd Civil Lawsuit, Continues To Beg For Money From His Supporters, Ben Stein's 'Aunt Jemima' Rant Is A Master Class On White Privilege, Why Did tWitch Kill Himself? Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. 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. The time for such argument is past. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Speech Transcript Frederick Douglass But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now denounced is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States; that the right to hold and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. Create a better, more engaging experience for every student. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. 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. Yea! I will not excuse. 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 me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. 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. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has 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. The most accurate AI-powered transcription on the market. be warned! In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. 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. The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and toallrights in this republic, the rights of God included! They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. 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! To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. 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. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. Frederick Douglass: (06:44) 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. There is blasphemy in the thought. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? be warned! On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student. 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. I shall not be charged with slandering Americans, if I say I think the American side of any question may be safely left in American hands. I will not. This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. But now is the time, the important time. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. will be found by Americans. This, however, did not answer the purpose. Speech welcome anything! It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. Space is comparatively annihilated. It is neither. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. Oh! My soul sickens at the sight. I cannot. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; buthow, we ask, could such a thing be done? 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. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. Whether we turn to the declarations of the past or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. Americans! Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God. In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: Th oppressd shall vilely bend the knee. 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! The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man Speech | The Art of Manliness 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. Morel is right that the 1876 speech by Frederick Douglass is remarkable and masterful. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. 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. I repeat, I am glad this is so. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. 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. I must mourn. 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! 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. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. There are 72 crimes in the state of Virginia, which if committed by a black man, no matter how ignorant he be, subject him to the punishment of death, while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. All Rights Reserved. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. Speech It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. They, that can, may. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. 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. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nations bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic;for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, andlet the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! 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. These rules are well established. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. 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. welcome atheism! By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes.



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