frederick douglass speech transcript frederick douglass speech transcript

They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. All Rights Reserved. speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. 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 ions, 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? By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. Its deeply moving to hear Douglass defend the honor of Black soldiers in his 1863 speech, The Proclamation And a Negro Army, read by Colman Domingo, while his final speech, 1894s Lessons of the Hour, lays out the crucial steps toward achieving equality that have yet to be followed today.The actor selected to read these words is 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? That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. 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. Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations Jubilee when the chains of servitude have been torn from his limbs? But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. 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. On July 5, 1852, eminent African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a brilliant speech to nearly six hundred people filling Rochester, New Yorks Corinthian Hall, as organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. This truth is not a doubtful one. WebDescription. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. 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. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. Suicide Note Revealed After Shocking Death, Mississippi Cops Beat, Waterboarded Handcuffed Black Men, Shot 1 For Dating White Women': Lawyers, Indicted! Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and sermons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling and universal interest a nations jubilee. The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. My soul sickens at the sight. 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. For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globeand it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. 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. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? 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. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. 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. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! 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. Many of its most eloquent Divines. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African 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. The message of Frederick Douglasss 1852 speech on the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. The drove moves tardily. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Is that a question for Republicans? Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. 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. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? No, I will not. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. Go search where you will. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. will be found by Americans. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you. The manhood of the slave is conceded. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. O! 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. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. 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! Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices under an open and palpablebribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty,hear only his accusers! That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now. I was born amid such sights and scenes. Standing here identified with the American bondsmen, making his wrongs mine. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. 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. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. I will use the severest language I can command. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. Frederick Douglass: (03:37) Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. 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. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 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. Frederick Douglass: (01:08) The Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? It is neither. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. Frederick Douglass: (07:35) With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. 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, That point is conceded already. I cannot. They were great in their day and generation. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? Mark them! The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. 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. A RESTful API to access Revs workforce of fast, high quality transcriptionists and captioners. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade, as it exists, at this moment, in the ruling part of the United States. 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.. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. 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 in sacrilegious irony. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? Morel is right that the 1876 speech by Frederick Douglass is remarkable and masterful. They, that can, may. In the language of Isaiah, the American church might be well addressed, Bring no more vain ablations; incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting. 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. You have already declared it. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. They were not the men to look back. Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge for the fatherless; plead for the widow., The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in connection with its ability to abolish slavery. 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.. Oh! May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. Under Title 17 U.S.C. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Yea! What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. All Rights Reserved. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. WebIn the late 1860sat a moment of great hope for the promise of equality under the lawthe famed orator and once-enslaved abolitionist Frederick Douglass took his Our Composite Nation speech on the road to argue for a plural American democracy. 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. Web" was a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery You were under the British Crown. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. The slave holders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. 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! Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? Your President, your Secretary of State, ourlords,nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. 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. 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. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. You may rejoice. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. 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. 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. But, to proceed. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. You profess to believe that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth, and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Born to an enslaved family in 1818, Frederick Douglass never knew his actual birthday, a fact not uncommon for those enslaved. 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. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. They inhabit all our Southern States. But, such is not the state of the case. 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. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. That point is conceded already. It is not that pure and undefiled religion which is from above, and which is first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,without partiality, and without hypocrisy. But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains,stay there; and to the oppressor,oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man. 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? I will show you a man-drover. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cumin abridge the right to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. 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 blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. WebAn excerpt from the 1847 Frederick Douglass speech given for the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? 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. Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.