Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. 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! Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. Frederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) A Plea for Free Speech in Boston (1860) | Constitution Center Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. His own testimony is nothing. 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. Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. What? May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. All Rights Reserved. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. 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! It is neither. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; and how such men can be supported, as the standing types and representatives of Jesus Christ, is a mystery which I leave others to penetrate. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. You may well cherish the memory of such men. 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! Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. Transcript Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? You were under the British Crown. Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. 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: This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nations bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic;for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, andlet the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They were great in their day and generation. Under Title 17 U.S.C. WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" But I fancy, I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression upon the public mind. That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. What, to the American Slave, Is Your Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. What then remains to be argued? Speech Transcript That point is conceded already. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. I will use the severest language I can command. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed. 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? They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. You may rejoice. You have already declared it. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. All Rights Reserved. He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. I was born amid such sights and scenes. I will not. And am I therefore called upon to bring our humble offering to the national alter and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. How unlike the politicians of an hour! They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Is it at the gateway? The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slaves redemption from his chains. 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. Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. He can bring no witnesses for himself. 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. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Fellow-citizens! I must mourn. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Standing here identified with the American bondsmen, making his wrongs mine. How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. It was, Milloy continued, a critique of a nation that claimed to hold dear the principles of freedom, justice and equality even as it enslaved black people.. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a threepenny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard-earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers of your country. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slaves point of view. Discover why Rev is the #1 speech-to-text service in the world. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. The subject has been handled with masterly power by Lysander Spooner, Esq., by William Goodell, by Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., and last, though not least, by Gerritt Smith, Esq. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. You know what is a swine-drover? Sign up for NewsOne's email newsletter! The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. They are plain, common-sense rules, such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply, without having passed years in the study of law. 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. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. 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. will be found by Americans. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Frederick Douglass delivered 'best Fourth of July speech in 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. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. Towards the end of But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. No, I will not. 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. welcome atheism! WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. 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. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations history the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. 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. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? Frederick Douglass: (08:30) With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. 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. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. Nobody doubts it. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. in preference to the gospel,as preached by those Divines! Is it not astonishing that while we are plowing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metal of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold, that while we are reading, writing, and ciphering acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers that we are engaged in all the enterprises, common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planting, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all confessing and worshiping the Christian God and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave. Where these are, man is not sacred. 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. 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. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. The drove moves tardily. Though a biting Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. 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? Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. Frederick Douglass: (06:44) The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. The oath of any two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of slavery! Frederick Douglass: (05:02) It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? You will see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. 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.. 1883 Speech by Frederick Douglass - accessible-archives.com 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. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion. You could instruct me in regard to them. Many of you understand them better than I do. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a social reformer and advocate, abolitionist, orator, writer, minister, and statesman. We need the storm. I cannot. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God. In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: Th oppressd shall vilely bend the knee. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? 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 and question and to denounce with all the emphasis I can command everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? There is blasphemy in the thought. Frederick Douglass If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? 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. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it. 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. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Speech Transcript They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Yea! speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) 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. It was, Milloy continued, a critique of a nation that claimed to hold dear the principles of freedom, justice and equality even as it enslaved black people.. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? We are called upon to prove that we are men. These rules are well established. The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. 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. Frederick Douglass speech - PBS No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. Frederick Douglass But I admit, where all is plain, there is nothing to be argued. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. The din of business, too, is hushed. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and the appellation, probably, conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to some of our old politicians. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. 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. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. that it should be so; yet so it is. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. The time for such argument is passed. 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, . be warned! The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. 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. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. By that act, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! Nobody doubts it. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. I am not that man. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. Not fewer than forty Americans have, within the past two years, been hunted down and, without a moments warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. 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. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? 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. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. Frederick Douglass: (07:35) 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 the great sin and shame of America! welcome anything! Speech You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the meretoolsand body-guardsof the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. The time for such argument is past. Space is comparatively annihilated. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man Speech | The Art of Manliness
Cityfitness Invercargill, Dale Tiffany Antiques Roadshow Collection, Rangers Banner At Parkhead, Articles F