frederick douglass speech transcript frederick douglass speech transcript

He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. The manhood of the slave is conceded. 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. That trade has long since been denounced by this government, as piracy. Further, if this demand were not complied with, another Scotland would be added to the history of religious liberty, and the stern old Covenanters would be thrown into the shade. Roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world. Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! The din of business, too, is hushed. 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, The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Follow the drove to New Orleans. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! 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? That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose, aseventh partof the inhabitants of your country. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. These rules are well established. Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. But, to proceed. But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of. 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. 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. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. There are 72 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 these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. When a sufficient number have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile, or to New Orleans. They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny, and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke, put together, have done! Extend your content reach and maximize your engagement rates. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. WebOn December 3, 1860, Frederick Douglass and a group of fellow abolitionists met at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston for a discussion centered around the following 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. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. 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. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Americans! To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. Frederick Douglass: (05:02) Is that a question for Republicans? The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. Many of its most eloquent Divines. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The fiat of the Almighty, Let there be Light, has not yet spent its force. Who can reason on such a proposition? His own testimony is nothing. Who can reason on such a proposition? Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. All Rights Reserved. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. 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. 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. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! 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. 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. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. Racist Ex-University Of Kentucky 'Karen' Sophia Rosing Is Charged For Assaulting Black Student. Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. WATCH VIDEO: Should Black Americans Celebrate Independence Day? WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. They are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them; and when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you. Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds; and that they do not do this involves them in the most awful responsibility of which the mind can conceive. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. 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. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation Babylon, whose crimes towering up to heaven with thrown down by the breadth of the almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin. 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. I must mourn. 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. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) 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. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent African-American professional men in celebration of the twenty-first anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.After the toast provided by former Senator Blanche K. Bruce, WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. 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. There is blasphemy in the thought. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. They did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it. 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. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are distinctly heard on the other. 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. that it should be so; yet so it is. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. What? Though a biting President John F. Kennedy On July 4, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered this speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. 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. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. O! They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent 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. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. Frederick Douglass: (00:26) Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? Its quite a remarkable speech as Douglass in a way reenacts his own journey in appreciation for the work that Lincoln did, not just for blacks, but for whites in this country. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. Like our content? My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. in preference to the gospel,as preached by those Divines! They were not the men to look back. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation a religion, a church, and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God. Everybody can say it; the dastard, not less than the noble brave, can flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. 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. Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? 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. Nobody doubts it. What, then, remains to be argued? Yea! Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? Frederick Douglass: (06:03) I will not equivocate. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. Nobody doubts it. Space is comparatively annihilated. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now. That year will come, and freedoms reign. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! 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. Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and place he may select. Fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains heavy and grievous yesterday are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. 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. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. 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. Fair use is permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. With them, nothing was settled that was not right. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, 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. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? 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! To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. 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? 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. My soul sickens at the sight. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right, ought to be free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved.. 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. 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? You have already declared it. I am not that man. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? A John Knox would be seen at every church door, and heard from every pulpit, and Fillmore would have no more quarter than was shown by Knox, to the beautiful, but treacherous queen Mary of Scotland. 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. be warned! The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. Yet they persevered. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. 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! The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support.