What, then, remains to be argued? 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. No! You have already declared it. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. 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. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Yet they persevered. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. Thu 5 Jul 2018 07.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 11.58 EDT. 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. 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. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. Frederick Douglass: (08:30) Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. 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. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. 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. Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. That point is conceded already. We need the storm. 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! 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. 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. At the time of the delivery of this speech, Douglass had been living in Rochester, New York for several years editing a weekly abolitionist newspaper. He was invited to give a fourth of July speech by the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester. In the early 1850s, tensions over slavery were high across the county. Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. WebOn January 9, 1894, at Washington, D.C.'s, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Frederick Douglass delivered his "The Lessons of the Hour" speech, which addressed the 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 questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. 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. A RESTful API to access Revs workforce of fast, high quality transcriptionists and captioners. Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? The din of business, too, is hushed. The country was poor in the munitions of war. A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! 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. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. 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 time was when such could be done. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. Yea! See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. 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. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. They inhabit all our Southern States. 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. The madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even by England; but we fear the lesson is wholly lost on our present ruler. 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. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. Morel is right that the 1876 speech by Frederick Douglass is remarkable and masterful. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. 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! 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. welcome atheism! I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. Is it at the gateway? One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the American church towards the anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in England towards a similar movement in that country. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. 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. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) 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. Nobody doubts it. The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. Speech-to-Text API for pre-recorded audio, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition engine. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christians God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men! What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. I am not that man. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. 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. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? 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. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. 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 and write. 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 What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, There is blasphemy in the thought. will be found by Americans. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! 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 It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) the internal slave trade. It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. 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, 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? 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. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. 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. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. 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. Would you argue more and denounce less? There are seventy-two 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 the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. You may rejoice, I must mourn.. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! 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. 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 If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. 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. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. 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. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. We are called upon to prove that we are men. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. You have already declared it. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. 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?