In Douglass' speech, his tone mainly appeals to emotions. Members of the public will take turns reading parts of the speech until theyve read all of it, together. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the 'lame man leap as an hart. 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. Writing before slaves were freed in the United States, Douglass' main objective in the Narrative is to dispel any notion that slavery is good for those enslaved. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. When from their galling chains set free, 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. At the time of the delivery of this speech, Douglass had been living in Rochester, New York for several years editing a weekly abolitionist newspaper. Frederick Douglass, "What the Black Man Wants" 2023 TIME USA, LLC. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? He wrote a glowing letter of encouragement to Harriet Tubman, which served as the preface to Sarah Bradfords 1869 biography about Tubmans life. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. He begins his speech by modestly apologizing for being nervous in front of the crowd and recognizes that he has come a long way since his escape from slavery. A small group would gather in a circle and take turns reading paragraphs from the speech. On the Fourth of July, 1852, America celebrated its freedom, as it does every Independence Day. Frederick Douglass's, "What To the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" It was a turbulent time for Douglass personally, too. All rights reserved. President Lincoln did issue the Emancipation Proclamation six months later but even after the wars end, Douglass continued to use the Fifth of July to draw attention to the nations track record on the idea celebrated on the Fourth. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. 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. Frederick Douglass's 4th of July speech still burns with his spirit That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! 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. There is blasphemy in the thought. As the project scholar, my role is to advise the process as it rolls out, to give a talk that provides contemporary and historical context and to facilitate the community discussion around the speech against the backdrop of other relevant issues. We convened a group of interested parties, met a few times over a couple of months, and decided to launch an event on the Common. Our ability to communicate has led to much greater organizing and mobilization. I am not that man. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. My subject, then fellow citizens, says Douglass, is American slavery. He brings that subject to life in vivid and sometimes horrifying terms, Standing, as he says, with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion. The effect is undeniable and its implications inescapable: the contradiction between the celebration and the bondage it masks demands action. He implored the Rochester, N.Y., audience to think about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday celebrating freedom. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future, Douglass said. Americans! I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. Frederick Douglass delivered 'best Fourth of July speech in American Thats a tough one for me. 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 and sacrilegious irony. Shall cease to flow! The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. A Brief History of the S'more, America's Favorite Campfire Snack, The 25 Defining Works of the Black Renaissance. The speech was originally delivered at a moment when the country was fiercely locked in debate over the question of slavery, but theres a reason why it has remained famous more than 150 years after emancipation, says David Blight, author of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize winning biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! 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.. ROY: The better we get to know the people that we live with, that we work around, that we see at the coffee shop, and the more we talk about these important racial issues with one another, the easier it will be to heal our divided communities. Why does Douglass appeal to the Constitution in the last section of the speech? They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. That day will come all feuds to end. Butin doing so he brings awareness to the hypocrisy of their ideals by the existence of slavery on American soil. This speech is now remembered as oneof Douglass' most poignant. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. 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. They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. He follows this observation by closing with words from William Lloyd Garrison, suggesting the new reach of the great abolitionist across the ocean as part of a global abolition movement. The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference.

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