frederick douglass speech transcript

You may rejoice. Celebrating Frederick Douglass through Transcription During 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. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. As with rivers so with nations. Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. 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. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. One of the parts of the speech that resonates with me the most is when Douglass says: What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? - Wikipedia At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. That year will come, and freedoms reign. A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . I was born amid such sights and scenes. I will not excuse. 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! Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the American church towards the anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in England towards a similar movement in that country. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. Americans! That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. 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. Many of its most eloquent Divines. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. Is slavery among them? I do not hesitate to declare with all my soul that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? 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 WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. 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. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? Who can reason on such a proposition? But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. Frederick Douglass: (01:08) The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. 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. Frederick Douglass It is fashionable to do so; but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried mens souls. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. 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. Nobody doubts it. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. 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 The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. will be found by Americans. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. 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. 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. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? 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, What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? 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. They inhabit all our Southern States. Though a biting It is neither. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most sacrilegious and shocking and would make me a reproach before God and the world. 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. WebDescription. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. 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? The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. WebOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Douglass was a powerful Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right, ought to be free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved.. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African Section 107, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout We have Washington toour father. Alas! The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. Create a better, more engaging experience for every student. Fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains heavy and grievous yesterday are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The most accurate AI-powered transcription on the market. The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. That he is the rightful owner of his own body? Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. 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? What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? 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. 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. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. Yea! In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Fellow-citizens! The time for such argument is passed. 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! The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. Ex-Vice-President Dallas tells us that the Constitution is an object to which no American mind can be too attentive, and no American heart too devoted. This, however, did not answer the purpose. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. 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. The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. "The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. It is, however, a notable fact that, while so much execration is poured out by Americans upon those engaged in the foreign slave-trade, the men engaged in the slave-trade between the states pass without condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. On the 2d of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. But, to proceed. Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. 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.. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. A Nation's Story: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Fromwhat quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of If I do forget, if I do not 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. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave Is the Fourth In the deep still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead heavy footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. Follow the drove to New Orleans. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. They were not the men to look back. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. The madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even by England; but we fear the lesson is wholly lost on our present ruler. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. The Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. The anti-slavery movementtherewas not an anti-church movement, for the reason that the church took its full share in prosecuting that movement: and the anti-slavery movement in this country will cease to be an anti-church movement, when the church of this country shall assume a favorable, instead of a hostile position towards that movement. Frederick Douglass They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. What, to the American Slave, Is Your Frederick Douglass: (06:44) Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. 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. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select. Its quite a remarkable speech as Douglass in a way reenacts his own journey in appreciation for the work that Lincoln did, not just for blacks, but for whites in this country. Many of you understand them better than I do. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. 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. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. 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. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. 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 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. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have.

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