He pushes forward his thesis: "This Fourth July [sic] is yours, not mine" [italics his]. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. He considers such a pro-slavery posture to be blasphemy because it gives cruelty a place in God's nature. Douglass praises and respects the signers of the Declaration of Independence, people who put the interests of a country above their own. All rights reserved. It is often studied in literature classes today. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. Douglass moved to Rochester in 1847, when he became the publisher of The North Star, an abolitionist weekly. Among his well-known speeches is "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," presented in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, a version of which he published as a booklet. Rev. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. Who can reason on such a proposition? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? 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. He criticizes American ideology as inconsistent. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. 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. Among his well-known speeches is "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," presented in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, a version of which he published as a booklet. God speed the hour, the glorious hour, When none on earth Shall exercise a lordly power, Nor in a tyrant's presence cower; But to all manhood's stature tower, By equal birth! Space is comparatively annihilated.
— Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.
The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. Throughout this speech, as well as his life, Douglass advocated equal justice and rights, as well as citizenship, for blacks.
When from their galling chains set free, Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee, And wear the yoke of tyranny Like brutes no more. Nobody doubts it.
In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: God speed the year of jubilee The wide world o'er!
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Douglass argues that the church is "superlatively guilty" — superlative, meaning even more guilty — because it is an institution which has the power to eradicate slavery by condemning it. God speed the day when human blood Shall cease to flow! ...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. Douglass thus implies that future generations will probably consider his anti-slavery stance patriotic, just, and reasonable.
we wept when we remembered Zion. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. Douglass then asks a rhetorical question: "Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us [blacks]?" Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed."
He touches on the history of the American Revolutionaries' fight for freedom against their legal bondage under British rule. 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. Related Information |
No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Indeed, he says, to ask a black person to celebrate the white man's freedom from oppression and tyranny is "inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony." 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! There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. For him, while it professes freedom, it does not give all people that right. 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. Removing #book# He says there is no person on earth who would be in favor of becoming a slave himself. I am not that man. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Certainly, on THAT 4th of JULY, the Great Orator, truly had reason to lament the hypocrisy of this nation toward Africans. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. 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. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery Ñ the great sin and shame of America! If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And while it advocates democracy in Europe and elsewhere, it does not grant it to all of its own people. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. Douglass sides with those activists who believe that the founding fathers meant to eliminate slavery and that the Constitution reflects this. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave.
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