frederick douglass speech transcript

Frederick Douglass' Descendants Read His Famous 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. be warned! They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. Born to an enslaved family in 1818, Frederick Douglass never knew his actual birthday, a fact not uncommon for those enslaved. 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. Create a better, more engaging experience for every student. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. The din of business, too, is hushed. 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? That point is conceded already. Frederick Douglass They were not the men to look back. O! With head, and heart, and hand Ill strive, 8 Times Obama Showed Trump How Presidents Are Supposed To Celebrate The Fourth Of July, Welcome To The Cookout: 10 Lit Movies To Watch During July Fourth Holiday Weekend, 'Dilbert' Comic Creator Calls Black People A 'Hate Group,' Urges Segregation So Whites Can 'Escape', Bernie Mac Show Star Camille Winbush Is Not Ashamed Of Joining OnlyFans, Kyle Rittenhouse Faces 2nd Civil Lawsuit, Continues To Beg For Money From His Supporters, Ben Stein's 'Aunt Jemima' Rant Is A Master Class On White Privilege, Why Did tWitch Kill Himself? I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. In the text it states, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave- we are called upon to prove that we are men? (Douglas 763). Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. 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! Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. 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. A Nation's Story: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? 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! Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. You know what is a swine-drover? These rules are well established. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. Frederick Douglass: (07:35) WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. You could instruct me in regard to them. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. 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. Frederick Douglass Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. 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. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. Full transcript of the famous speech What to the Slave is the 4th of July? by Frederick Douglass. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. Frederick Douglass WebCelebrating 200 years of Frederick Douglass. I will show you a man-drover. Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? 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 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. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. The country was poor in the munitions of war. That point is conceded already. You may rejoice, I must mourn.. Our Composite Nation: Frederick Douglass America I will not. You may rejoice. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. Oppression makes a wise man mad. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Fair use is permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. Is it that slavery is not divine, that God did not establish it, that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, iswrong? There is blasphemy in the thought. What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? - Wikipedia There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. 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.. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. You glory in your refinement and your universal education yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful as ever stained the character of a nation a system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty. 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. 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. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it.

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