The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority ofHimby whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teachthat we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. Frederick Douglass speech - PBS And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. Frederick Douglass: (08:30) How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) They that can, may; I cannot. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. Your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your shouts of Liberty and equality, hallow mocked, your prayers and hymns your sermons and Thanksgivings with all your religious parade in solemnity are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, a thin veil to cover up crimes, which would disgrace a nation of savages. Frederick Douglass' Descendants Read His Famous This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. Follow the drove to New Orleans. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? He can bring no witnesses for himself. And while slavery has long been abolished and outlawed, the sentiment behind the address still applies in many unfortunate ways when it comes to the overall Black experience in America. Suicide Note Revealed After Shocking Death, Mississippi Cops Beat, Waterboarded Handcuffed Black Men, Shot 1 For Dating White Women': Lawyers, Indicted! All Rights Reserved. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. Is it at the gateway? But I admit, where all is plain, there is nothing to be argued. You were under the British Crown. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? 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 (1818-1895) was a social reformer and advocate, abolitionist, orator, writer, minister, and statesman. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. Sydney Smith tells us that men seldom eulogize the wisdom and virtues of their fathers, but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own. will be found by Americans. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Frederick Douglass: (06:44) It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. A Nation's Story: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? 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. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! WATCH VIDEO: Should Black Americans Celebrate Independence Day? I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. 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? Speech They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. They inhabit all our Southern States. No, I will not. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. 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. 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. 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, For who is there so cold that a nation sympathy cannot warm him, who so adore it and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? 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. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. 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! In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. 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. The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. 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. 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. Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave Is the Fourth Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. Oration by Frederick Douglass, delivered on the occasion of the His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills, headed CASH FOR NEGROES. A RESTful API to access Revs workforce of fast, high quality transcriptionists and captioners. But, such is not the state of the case. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. Speech Transcript 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. Oh! Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. 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. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. The country was poor in the munitions of war. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty. Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! Is slavery among them? Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. 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 Juneteenth Reading List: 10 Books To Learn More About Black Independence Day, Your email will be shared with newsone.com and subject to its, 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, .