frederick douglass speech transcript frederick douglass speech transcript

For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? 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. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. 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! WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. Fair use is permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. Frederick Douglass's, What To the Slave Is the Fourth of Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you. But, such is not the state of the case. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Create a better, more engaging experience for every student. Frederick Douglass: (03:37) The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and toallrights in this republic, the rights of God included! There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. Discover why Rev is the #1 speech-to-text service in the world. Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? You live and must die, and you must do your work. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Celebrating Frederick Douglass through Transcription 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. YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge for the fatherless; plead for the widow., The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in connection with its ability to abolish slavery. 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 crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. welcome atheism! These rules are well established. I will show you a man-drover. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and That year will come, and freedoms reign. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day celebration organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! 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. Standing here identified with the American bondsmen, making his wrongs mine. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. 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? Frederick Douglass: (02:13) be warned! Frederick Douglass Read the full transcript here. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Frederick Douglass 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. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. or is it in the temple? Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. 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. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. I lived on Philpot Street, Fells Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves, the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. 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. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. 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. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests. 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. 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. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. Suicide Note Revealed After Shocking Death, Mississippi Cops Beat, Waterboarded Handcuffed Black Men, Shot 1 For Dating White Women': Lawyers, Indicted! 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. 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 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. 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. The Bible addresses all such persons as scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe ofmint, anise,andcumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. 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. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. Everybody can say it; the dastard, not less than the noble brave, can flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies. 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. It is neither. Oh! That he is the rightful owner of his own body? These gentlemen have, as I think, fully and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support slavery for an hour. 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. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. The most accurate AI-powered transcription on the market. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. 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. We thank you for taking the time to watch this community reading of Frederick Douglasss What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Source: Blight, David. O! The din of business, too, is hushed. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. All Rights Reserved. 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! I was born amid such sights and scenes. From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. WebAn excerpt from the 1847 Frederick Douglass speech given for the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. It is not that pure and undefiled religion which is from above, and which is first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,without partiality, and without hypocrisy. But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains,stay there; and to the oppressor,oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man. Frederick Douglass speech - PBS WebIn this speech, Frederick Douglass reflected on how the outpouring of joy at the conclusion of the Civil War turned to mourning with Lincolns assassination. 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. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. You could instruct me in regard to them. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. 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. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. 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 Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. 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. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. The drove moves tardily. It was demanded, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity. You have already declared it. 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. that it should be so; yet so it is. "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Speech Transcript 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. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. 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, Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? Frederick Douglass: (10:31) Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. I will use the severest language I can command. 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.. We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the church and ministry of the country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to fight or flee. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness. 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. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slaves point of view. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! 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. 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. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. And while slavery has long been abolished and outlawed, the sentiment behind the address still applies in many unfortunate ways when it comes to the overall Black experience in America. WebIn December 1860, the great American orator and former slave Frederick Douglass delivered one of his finest speeches, A Plea for Free Speech in Boston. In it, he boldly declared that liberty is meaningless where the right to utter ones thoughts and I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. 1883 Speech by Frederick Douglass - accessible-archives.com What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. They inhabit all our Southern States. Americans! This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. They, that can, may. your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. 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, That point is conceded already. Section 107, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. 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.