frederick douglass speech transcripthow did lafayette help the patriot cause?

The Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. 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! To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. Frederick Douglass: (02:13) He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. When the dogs in your streets, 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, thenwill I argue with you that the slave is a man! Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. 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.. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. 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. These rules are well established. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. Frederick Douglass: (06:03) I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! 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. 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? 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. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. Born to an enslaved family in 1818, Frederick Douglass never knew his actual birthday, a fact not uncommon for those enslaved. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. 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! 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. 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. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to those questions. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, newspaper publisher, and respected abolitionist. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. Is that a question for Republicans? I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. If I do forget, if I do not remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, may my right hand forget her cunning and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. 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. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. 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. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. 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. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. 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. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a social reformer and advocate, abolitionist, orator, writer, minister, and statesman. The manhood of the slave is conceded. Then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful? For it is not light that is needed, but fire. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. You may rejoice. Douglass gave this speech to a group of abolitionists 168 years ago. We need the storm. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. You live and must die, and you must do your work. 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. That is a branch of knowledge in which you feel, perhaps, a much deeper interest than your speaker. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people! What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my horror. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your broad republican domain is hunting ground formen. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! The time was when such could be done. Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. 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! 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? That, which is inhuman cannot be divine. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. And it would go hard with that politician who presumed to solicit the votes of the people without inscribing this motto on his banner. WebFrederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 INTRODUCTION (Exordium) 1. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? Is slavery among them? What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? Mark them! 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. This is a primary source reading analysis of Frederick Douglass' famous speech. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. 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? 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. O! Frederick Douglass: (00:26) These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. On the 2d of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea with all the authority of national sanction. Americans! You know what is a swine-drover? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Web" was a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery His death, according to Douglass was not only tragic, but also prevented recently freed slaves and African Americans from gaining the ear of wise and well-intentioned leader. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. Frederick Douglass: (02:57) Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper. Were the nation older, the patriots heart might be sadder, and the reformers brow heavier. 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, 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. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. 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. On July 5, 1852, eminent African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a brilliant speech to nearly six hundred people filling Rochester, New Yorks Corinthian Hall, as organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. They were great in their day and generation. Am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to Rob them of their Liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with ions, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? 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. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! Build with the best speech-to-text APIs around. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. 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. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. 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? What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. Make your content more accessible to people with disabilities. Suicide Note Revealed After Shocking Death, Mississippi Cops Beat, Waterboarded Handcuffed Black Men, Shot 1 For Dating White Women': Lawyers, Indicted! It has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable traffic. welcome anything! 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. 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 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. In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked to spare the church, to spare the ministry; buthow, we ask, could such a thing be done? Calculate how much it costs to transcribe, caption, or subtitle your content. 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. Become a freelancer and work on your own terms. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. What? that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. The most accurate AI-powered transcription on the market. They are plain, common-sense rules, such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply, without having passed years in the study of law. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. 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. 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. 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.

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