Web"The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass, January 9, 1894 Friends and Fellow Citizens : No man should come before an audience like the one by whose presence I am now honored, without a noble object and a fixed and earnest purpose. 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. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Speech Transcript WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. welcome anything! There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. Frederick Douglass: (07:35) The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. Would you argue more and denounce less? I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. Frederick Douglass: (02:13) 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. "The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! 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. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. No! Speech Yea! When the dogs in your street, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea and the reptiles that crawl shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then I will argue with you that the slave is a man. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. 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 Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man Speech | The Art of Manliness The feeling of the nation must be quickened. Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. Who can reason on such a proposition? A Plea for Free Speech in Boston (1860) | Constitution Center Is it that slavery is not divine, that God did not establish it, that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. Search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. 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. They did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. Oh, had I, the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would today pour out a fiery steam of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. Nobody doubts it. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. Speech-to-Text API for pre-recorded audio, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition engine. 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. 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? 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. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. But, to proceed. 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. Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. I am not included within the pales of this glorious anniversary. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you. 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. Frederick Douglass Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa! It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. 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. Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? 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. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. be warned! Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, 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! The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. Is slavery among them? Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. Frederick Douglass The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? - Wikipedia Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. They that can, may; I cannot. What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. I cannot. 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 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.. They inhabit all our Southern States. The text of Frederick Douglasss most famous speech, given in 1852, What, to a slave, is the Fourth of July? A chapter describing Douglasss early encounters with abolitionists, from his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom, 1857. I leave, therefore, the great deeds of your fathers to other gentlemen whose claim to have been regularly descended will be less likely to be disputed than mine! The din of business, too, is hushed. 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. Speech There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now. 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! 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. 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? 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. You may rejoice. You may rejoice, I must mourn.. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. 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 There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. 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. The time was when such could be done. I am not that man. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. speech This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. 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. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. be warned! It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. They were not the men to look back. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. Space is comparatively annihilated. 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, May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This, however, did not answer the purpose. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? This truth is not a doubtful one. His own testimony is nothing. What then remains to be argued? Create a better, more engaging experience for every student. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. WebFrederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) O! When Douglass delivered his famous The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, he was issuing a scathing indictment of American hypocrisy, Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy reminded readers. WebAn excerpt from the 1847 Frederick Douglass speech given for the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a social reformer and advocate, abolitionist, orator, writer, minister, and statesman. That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. 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. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. What, to the American Slave, Is Your WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. Is it at the gateway? 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! They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. 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. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. What, then, remains to be argued? All Rights Reserved. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. Frederick Douglass As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent Frederick Douglass, circa 1879. Difference between Rittenhouse and McMichael-Bryan verdicts? 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. 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. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. 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. The country was poor in the munitions of war. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and 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. 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. 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 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? They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? 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. 1883 Speech by Frederick Douglass - accessible-archives.com It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. Speech Transcript These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. WebDescription. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.

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