It is carried on in all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every year, by dealers in this horrid traffic. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a social reformer and advocate, abolitionist, orator, writer, minister, and statesman. Frederick Douglass: (01:08) It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. You know what is a swine-drover? Oppression makes a wise man mad. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. Frederick Douglass delivered 'best Fourth of July speech in Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! 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? Speech-to-Text API for pre-recorded audio, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition engine. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. 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. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. The time for such argument is passed. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation a religion, a church, and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God. 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. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. 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. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. 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. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. I lived on Philpot Street, Fells Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves, the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. But I admit, where all is plain, there is nothing to be argued. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. welcome anything! In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide 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. 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. 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. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. 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.. 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. But now is the time, the important time. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. I must mourn. He can bring no witnesses for himself. A Nation's Story: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. or is it in the temple? Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The time was when such could be done. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. 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. 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 If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. 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.. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. 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 and write. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. Community Reading: Frederick Douglass's "What weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. Though a biting They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. WebDescription. 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 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. The propriety of the nation must be startled. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. 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 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations history the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. 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. 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! I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. Everybody can say it; the dastard, not less than the noble brave, can flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. 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. What, then, remains to be argued? Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. 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 a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. 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, Fifth of July speech (1852) I will not. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. Section 107, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. 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 are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man Speech | The Art of Manliness I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times. Celebrating Frederick Douglass through Transcription Frederick Douglass speech - PBS With them, nothing was settled that was not right. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow.