I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. See answers Advertisement bhawsarsakshi4 And from his prison-house, the thrall More than 150 years later, Keidrick Roy, a doctoral student in American Studies at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a U.S. Air Force veteran, will host a virtual community reading and discussion of the storied speech at the Somerville Museum on Thursday as part of the annual state-wide MassHumanities program Reading Frederick Douglass Together.. So witness Heaven! That holiday, he delivered the greatest anti-slavery speech in American history. To some, celebrations of American independence on July 4 are a reminder of the countrys hypocrisy on the matter of freedom, as slavery played a key role in the nations history; even today, Americas history of racism is still being written, while other forms of modern-day slavery persist in the U.S. and around the world. 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. Many of you understand them better than I do. We convened a group of interested parties, met a few times over a couple of months, and decided to launch an event on the Common. The purpose of Douglass' message was to inform abolitions of the inhumane treatment of slaves and to continue making progress in freeing slaves. 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! Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? 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. The most famous speech of the orator's career, it marked a departure from his mentor, Boston abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison.In it, Douglass expressed his desire to participate in the political life of the nation, while the more radical . The Nativist party is rising. speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. No! In the late 1840s and into the 1850s, his finances were tight, and he was struggling to sustain the newspaper he founded, The North Star. Douglass repeatedly uses the pronouns you and your (rather than our and ours) throughout this section. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. I am not that man. 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, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. Our ability to communicate has led to much greater organizing and mobilization. You could instruct me in regard to them. Indeed, in one of the most timeless passages in the speech, Douglass insists that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July, adding as if speaking today, 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. His speeches continued to agitate for racial equality and women's rights. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? He begins his speech by modestly apologizing for being nervous in front of the crowd and recognizes that he has come a long way since his escape from slavery. I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped "To palter with us in a double sense: And keep the word of promise to the ear, But break it to the heart.". In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests. what is the main message of douglass's speech? 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. On the Fourth of July, 1852, America celebrated its freedom, as it does every Independence Day. The story of most nations is difficult to catalogue. Why, then, did Douglass speak as harshly as he did? When the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester, N.Y., invited Douglass to give a July 4 speech in 1852, Douglass opted to speak on July 5 instead. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. This power fuels modern abolition movements, whether of human trafficking, prison or police. You have already declared it. Writing before slaves were freed in the United States, Douglass' main objective in the Narrative is to dispel any notion that slavery is good for those enslaved. But its quite another to change the way you see yourself and to grow into a person deeply committed to long-term interracial coalition building. It is actually quite longwe use an abridged version for our readingsbut despite its length it is at once riveting and concise. 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? or is it in the temple? That annihilation of space has allowed for real time reporting of events, which in turn has led to considerable change around the world. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. He begins his speech by modestly apologizing for being nervous in front of the crowd and recognizes that he has come a long way since his escape from slavery. Be warned! Until that year, day, hour, arrive, This project began in the library of an organization called Community Change, which was founded by Horace Seldon in 1968 to address the white problem at the root of American inequality revealed by the Kerner Report. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder, he said. Throughout this speech, as well as his life, Douglass advocated equal justice and rights, as well as citizenship, for blacks. Is that a question for Republicans? They were great men, too, great enough to give frame to a great age. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Douglass message about America struggling to live up to the lofty goals it set for itself at the founding continues to be relevant, says Blight. What is the main message of Douglass's speech? Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. It occurred to me that it would be of interest to many others if they knew about it. President Lincoln did issue the Emancipation Proclamation six months later but even after the wars end, Douglass continued to use the Fifth of July to draw attention to the nations track record on the idea celebrated on the Fourth. "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; 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. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. But, he said, speaking more than a decade before slavery was ended nationally, a lot of work still needed to be done so that all citizens can enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Above your national, tumultuous joy the July 4th celebrations of white Americans were the mournful wails of millions whose heavy chains are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.. Douglass states, "My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. Not least since the racism that made slavery endures. Frederick Douglass, Americas most famous anti-slavery activist and fugitive slave, saw no ground to celebrate: he saw the octopus arms of slavery stretched everywhere, exposing the hollowness of Americas freedom values. Would you argue more, and denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." I attended in 2008 and was deeply moved by the experience. "We need the. I am also hosting a summer reading and discussion series called Race, Fragility, and Anti-Racism through the Somerville Museum and the City on a Hill network of local churches. One of his famous speeches, called "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," was given on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, at an event in the Corinthian Hall. Somehow I often find myself reading this paragraph and Im always struck by its prescience. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. Overseers announce new president, vice chair. In an Independence Day address in 1852, abolitionist movement leader Frederick Douglass famously asked a gathering in Rochester, New York What to the slave is the Fourth of July?Answering his own question, it is a day, he said, that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. Douglass speech laid bare the hypocrisy of American ideals of freedom at a time when millions were living in Constitutionally-sanctioned bondage across the United States. . 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. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. Why do you think he does so? 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! His friend Julia Griffith, the treasurer of the Rochester group that invited him to give the 1852 speech, was one of the people helping him fund-raise to keep the paper alive. Th oppressd shall vilely bend the knee, I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. What, then, remains to be argued? The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. ROY: The event that were doing in Somerville puts pressure on whitewashed conceptions of the Fourth of July, as many people to this day still view it as a celebration of American food, fireworks, and freedom. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The manhood of the slave is conceded. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? And wear the yoke of tyranny He point-by-point counters a. In every clime be understood, There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour. We unveiled the first 10 members of the FD200 today, on the 166th anniversary of Douglasss speech. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. Within twenty years Douglass was the one of the most famous men in the United Statesauthor of two widely read memoirs and an orator who commanded among the highest speaking fees in the nation. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake., Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter. 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. "For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder," he said. "My subject, then fellow citizens," says Douglass, "is American slavery ." Wells, which was incorporated into the preface of her 1892 pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.. Behind the Speech: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? | Time I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. Addressing an audience of about 600 at the newly constructed Corinthian Hall, he started out by acknowledging that the signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave and great men, and that the way they wanted the Republic to look was in the right spirit. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. Uncle Toms Cabin had just been published that spring and was taking the country by storm. David Harris: Douglass was known for his oratory and this speech is no exception. 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. The above audio reading by actor Ossie Davis can be used alongside the full text of Frederick Douglass's speech delivered on July 5, 1852 at Corinthian Hall to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York.