The whole scene, as I look back to it, was simple, dignified and sublime. Frederick Douglass: (03:37) My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. You know what is a swine-drover? Is it at the gateway? 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. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. It is neither. The Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. 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! My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. The time for such argument is past. They were not the men to look back. They, that can, may. He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. 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. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its horrors. Is that a question for Republicans? 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. 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. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. It is fashionable to do so; but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried mens souls. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. Yea! Is it that slavery is not divine, that God did not establish it, that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. The time for such argument is passed. I am not that man. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. 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. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. Is slavery among them? I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. We need the storm. 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. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of Liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems were inhuman mockery in sacrilegious irony. Under Title 17 U.S.C. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. 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. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. O! 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. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. 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 existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices under an open and palpablebribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty,hear only his accusers! That he is the rightful owner of his own body? A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 . welcome atheism! The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations history the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, andthugs. 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.. It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. 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. Americans! For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 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.. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence. Frederick Douglass: (06:44) In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. I will not equivocate. It was fashionable, hundreds of years ago, for the children of Jacob to boast, we have Abraham to our father, when they had long lost Abrahams faith and spirit. As with rivers so with nations. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. 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. welcome anything! But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. I will use the severest language I can command. They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. Extend your content reach and maximize your engagement rates. Speech Transcript Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. I must mourn. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! 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. Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment. Frederick Douglass: (10:31) Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. 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 I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. 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? who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. WebDescription. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slaves point of view. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. 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. 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! The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground formen. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. Frederick Douglass: (04:09) What, then, remains to be argued? See this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; and how such men can be supported, as the standing types and representatives of Jesus Christ, is a mystery which I leave others to penetrate. 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. WebFrederick Douglass, Fifth of July speech (1852) O! Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. But, such is not the state of the case. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. Oh, had I, the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would today pour out a fiery steam of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. Mark them! The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! 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. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. 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. What would be thought of an instrument, drawn up, legally drawn up, for the purpose of entitling the city of Rochester to a track of land, in which no mention of land was made? Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. Fair use is permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. This, however, did not answer the purpose. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. You may rejoice. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. 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. The questions are designed to provoke thought and guide the students through the document. 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. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. 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. 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. Nobody doubts it. 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. 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. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. 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! What then remains to be argued? Not fewer than forty Americans have, within the past two years, been hunted down and, without a moments warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. 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. Morel is right that the 1876 speech by Frederick Douglass is remarkable and masterful. I will show you a man-drover. 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 At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. 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: This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. This truth is not a doubtful one. 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? 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. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. Where these are, man is not sacred. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. His agents were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival, through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills, headed CASH FOR NEGROES.

Atlantic City Airport Ticket Sales Hours, Mole Valley Council Planning, Articles F