what to the slave is the fourth of july james earl jones

Speech communication past Frederick Douglass

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Frederick Douglass circa 1852

The 1852 pamphlet printing of the spoken language

"What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?"^{[one] [2]} is the title now given to a speech by Frederick Douglass delivered on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized past the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society.^[iii] The oral communication is peradventure the most widely known of all of Frederick Douglass' writings relieve his autobiographies. Many copies of i department of it, beginning in paragraph 32, accept been circulated online.^[iv] Due to this and the variant titles given to it in various places, and the fact that it is chosen a July 4th Oration but was really delivered on July 5, some confusion has arisen virtually the date and contents of the speech. The spoken communication has since been published under the above title in The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One, Vol. 2. (1982) ^[5]

While referring to the celebrations of the Independence Day in the United States the day before, the spoken language uses biting irony and bitter rhetoric, and astute textual assay of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, and the Christian Bible, to advance a values-based argument against the connected existence of Slavery in the United States.^[6] Douglass orates that positive statements most American values, such as freedom, citizenship, and freedom, were an offense to the enslaved population of the The states considering of their lack of freedom, liberty, and citizenship. As well, Douglass referred not only to the captivity of enslaved people, just to the merciless exploitation and the cruelty and torture that slaves were subjected to in the Usa.^[7] Rhetoricians R.L. Heath and D. Waymer called this topic the "paradox of the positive" because it highlights how something positive and meant to be positive can also exclude individuals.^[vii]

Views expressed in the spoken language [edit]

The 4th of July Address, delivered in Corinthian Hall, by Frederick Douglass, is published on skillful paper, and makes a neat pamphlet of forty pages. The 'Address' may be had at this office, cost ten cents, a single copy, or six dollars per hundred.

—Advertisement for the pamphlet of Douglass' oral communication from the July 12, 1852 edition of Frederick Douglass' Paper (formerly The North Star)

Douglass said that the fathers of the nation were swell statesmen, and that the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence were "saving principles", and the "ringbolt of your nations destiny", stating, "stand up by those principles, exist true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever price." Even so, he maintained that slaves owed nothing to and had no positive feelings towards the founding of the United states of america. He faulted America for utter hypocrisy and expose of those values in maintaining the institution of slavery.

What accept I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?...What, to the American slave, is your fourth 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.^[viii]

Douglass also stresses the view that slaves and free Americans are equal in nature. He expresses his conventionalities in the voice communication that he and other slaves are fighting the same fight in terms of wishing to be free that White Americans, the ancestors of the white people he is addressing, fought seventy years before.

They were statesmen, patriots, and heroes, and…with them, justice, liberty, and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression.^{[ix] : 340}

Douglass as well says that if the residents of America believe that slaves are "men",^{[9] : 342} they should be treated every bit such. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not stand up idly by while the rights and liberty of others are stripped away.

Douglass denounces the churches for betraying their own biblical and Christian values. He is outraged by the lack of responsibility and indifference towards slavery that many sects have taken around the nation. He says that, if anything, many churches actually stand behind slavery and back up the connected existence of the institution. Douglass equates this to existence worse than many other things that are banned, in particular, books and plays that are banned for adultery.

They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny and savage cruelty, and serve to ostend more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke put together have done.^{[ix] : 344}

Nevertheless, Douglass claims that this can change. The The states does not accept to stay the style information technology is. The country tin progress like it has before, transforming from beingness a colony of a far-away king to an independent nation. Bang-up U.k., and many other countries of that fourth dimension, had already abolished slavery from its territories. The British accomplished this through religion or more specifically, the church building. Considering the church stood backside the decision to abolish the selling and buying of people, and so did the residual of the land. Douglass argues that faith is the heart of the problem but also the principal solution to it.

Douglass believed that slavery could be eliminated with the back up of the church, and as well with the reexamination of what the Bible was really saying.

You lot profess to believe, "that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the world," and hath commanded all men everywhere to dearest one another; yet you notoriously hate (and celebrity in your hatred) all men whose skins are non colored similar your ain.^{[nine] : 345}

Douglass wants his audition to realize that they are not living up to their proclaimed beliefs. He talks about how they, being Americans, are proud of their country and their religion and how they rejoice in the name of freedom and liberty and even so they practise not offer those things to millions of their country's residents.^{[9] : 345}

He employs irony to do a lot of this piece of work. Douglass spends time celebrating the efforts of the founding fathers of America for fighting dorsum against the tyranny of England when he says^[10]

Oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not become mad, they became restive under this treatment. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. With brave men there is e'er a remedy for oppression. Just hither, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by information technology.

Douglass details the hardships past Americans in one case endured when they were members of British colonies and validates their feelings of ill treatment. He does all this to show the irony of their inability to sympathize with the Black people they oppressed in cruel ways that the forefathers they valorized never experienced. He validates the feelings of injustice the Founders felt and then juxtaposes their experiences with bright descriptions of the harshness of slavery when he says:^[xi]

The crack yous heard, was the audio of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered nether the weight of her kid and her chains! that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. Follow the drove to New Orleans. Attend the auction; come across men examined similar horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. Run across this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Tell me citizens, WHERE, under the dominicus, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade, every bit it exists, at this moment, in the ruling office of the United states of america.

Essentially, Douglass criticizes his audience'south pride for a nation that claims to value freedom though it is composed of people who continuously commit atrocities confronting Blacks. It is said that America is built on the idea of freedom and freedom, simply Douglass tells his audience that more than annihilation, it is built on inconsistencies and hypocrisies that take been disregarded for and so long they appear to be truths. Co-ordinate to Douglass, these inconsistencies have fabricated the United States the object of mockery and frequently contempt amidst the various nations of the world.^{[9] : 346} To show evidence of these inconsistencies, as one historian noted, during the voice communication Douglass claims that the The states Constitution is an abolitionist document and not a pro-slavery document.^[12] Douglass said:^{[xiii] [xiv]}

An advertisement for the occasion of the speech.

Fellow-citizens! 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. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted equally information technology ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY Document. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither.

In this respect, Douglass' views converged with that of Abraham Lincoln's^[fifteen] in that those politicians who were proverb that the Constitution was a justification for their beliefs in regard to slavery were doing so dishonestly.

However, if slavery were abolished and equal rights given to all, that would no longer exist the case. In the cease, Douglass wants to continue his hope and organized religion in humanity high. Douglass declares that true freedom can not be in America if Black people are still enslaved there and is adamant that the end of slavery is about. Knowledge is becoming more readily available, Douglass said, and shortly the American people will open their eyes to the atrocities they have been inflicting on their young man Americans.

Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. Information technology makes its pathway over and under the sea, likewise as on the earth.^{[9] : 346}

Later views on American independence [edit]

The spoken language "What to the Slave Is the Quaternary of July?" was delivered in the decade preceding the American Ceremonious War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and achieved the abolition of slavery. During the Civil War, Douglass said that since Massachusetts had been the first land to bring together the Patriot cause during the American Revolutionary War, black men should go to Massachusetts to enlist in the Matrimony Army.^[16] Subsequently the Civil War, Douglass said that "we" had accomplished a not bad affair by gaining American independence during the American Revolutionary State of war, though he said it was non as great as what was achieved past the Ceremonious War.^[17]

Legacy [edit]

In the Usa, the spoken communication is widely taught in history and English classes in high schoolhouse and higher.^[6] American studies professor Andrew South. Bibby argues that because many of the editions produced for educational use are abridged, they often misrepresent Douglass'due south original through omission or editorial focus.^[6]

A statue of Douglass erected in Rochester in 2018 was torn down on July v, 2020—the 168th ceremony of the oral communication.^{[eighteen] [19]} The head of the organisation responsible for the memorial speculated that information technology was vandalized in response to the removal of Confederate monuments in the wake of the George Floyd protests, though there is no prove to show this statement. ^[xx]

Notable readings [edit]

The speech has been notably performed or read by important figures, including the post-obit:

• James Earl Jones^[6]
• Morgan Freeman^[half-dozen]
• Danny Glover^[six]
• Ossie Davis^[vi]
• Baratunde Thurston^[21]
• V of his descendants^[22]

References [edit]

1. ^ Douglass, Frederick (1852). Frederick Douglass, Oration, Delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, July 5th, 1852. Rochester: Lee, Mann & Co., 1852. Rochester, NY: Lee, Mann & Co.
2. ^ Douglass, Frederick (July 5, 1852). ""What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"". Retrieved January 2, 2022.
3. ^ McFeely, William Southward. (1991). Frederick Douglass . New York: W.West. Norton & Visitor. pp. 172–173. ISBN978-0-393-02823-2.
4. ^ The paragraphing referenced here is taken from an edition of the speech at RhetoricalGoddess
5. ^ Douglass, Frederick (1982). Blassingame, John W. (ed.). The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One: Speeches Debates, and Interviews. Vol. ii, 1847-54. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 359-387.
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f m} Bibby, Andrew South. (July 2, 2014). "'What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?': Frederick Douglass's fiery Independence 24-hour interval spoken communication is widely read today, but not and then widely understood". Wall Street Journal . Retrieved August xiii, 2015.
7. ^ ^{a b} Heath, Robert Fifty.; Waymer, Damion (2009). "Activist Public Relations and the Paradox of the Positive: A Case Study of Frederick Douglass'southward Fourth of July Address". Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations II: 192–215. ISBN9781135220877.
8. ^ Battistoni, Richard. The American Ramble Experience: Selected Readings & Supreme Court Opinions, pp. 66-73 (Kendall Hunt, 2000).
9. ^ ^{a b c d east f k} Douglass, Frederick (1852). "Oration, Delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, July five, 1852". In Harris, Leonard; Pratt, Scott L.; Waters, Anne S. (eds.). American Philosophies: An Album. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell (published 2002). ISBN978-0-631-21002-3.
10. ^ ""What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"". Teaching American History . Retrieved 2021-05-22 .
11. ^ ""What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?"". Teaching American History . Retrieved 2021-05-22 .
12. ^ Colaiaco, James A. (March 24, 2015). Frederick Douglass and the Quaternary of July. St. Martin's Publishing Grouping. ISBN9781466892781 – via Google Books.
13. ^ "Exceptionalism and the left". Los Angeles Times. December 13, 2010.
14. ^ African Americans In Congress: A Documentary History, by Eric Freedman and Stephen A, Jones, 2008, p. 39
15. ^ Gorski, Philip (February half-dozen, 2017). American Covenant: A History of Ceremonious Religion from the Puritans to the Present. Princeton University Printing. ISBN9781400885008 – via Google Books.
16. ^ Douglass, Frederick. Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings, p. 46 (Dover Publications, 2014): "We tin get at the throat of treason and slavery through the State of Massachusetts. She was outset in the War of Independence; first to break the chains of her slaves; get-go to make the blackness human equal before the law; first to admit colored children to her common schools, and she was commencement to answer with her claret the alarm cry of the nation, when its capital was menaced by rebels."
17. ^ Douglass, Frederick. Autobiographies, p. 765 (Library of America, 1994): "It was a great thing to reach American Independence when we numbered three millions, only it was a greater thing to salve this country from dismemberment and ruin when information technology numbered xxx millions."
18. ^ Schwartz, Matthew South. (July 6, 2020). "Frederick Douglass Statue Torn Down On Anniversary Of Famous Speech". NPR. Archived from the original on July vii, 2020. Retrieved July seven, 2020.
19. ^ Brown, Deneen L. (July 6, 2020). "Frederick Douglass statue torn downwardly in Rochester, N.Y., on ceremony of his famous Fourth of July speech". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 7, 2020. Retrieved July seven, 2020.
20. ^ Pengelly, Martin (July 6, 2020). "Frederick Douglass statue torn down on anniversary of not bad speech". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July vii, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2020. Speaking to WROC, [Carvin] Eison asked: 'Is this some type of retaliation because of the national fever over Amalgamated monuments right now? Very disappointing, it's across disappointing.'
21. ^ Thurston, Baratunde (July 4, 2020) [Recorded July 1, 2016]. Baratunde Delivers USA Co-Founder Frederick Douglass 1852 Speech communication: 'What To The Slave Is The quaternary of July' . Facebook. Directed past Tara Garver Mikhael. Brooklyn Public Library. Retrieved July seven, 2020.
22. ^ "VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' Descendants Deliver His 'Quaternary Of July' Speech". NPR.org . Retrieved 2021-05-22 .

Farther reading [edit]

• Bizzell, Patricia (1997-02-01). "The quaternary of July and the 22nd of December: The Function of Cultural Archives in Persuasion, every bit Shown by Frederick Douglass and William Apess". Higher Limerick and Communication. 48 (1): 44–60. doi:10.2307/358770. ISSN 0010-096X. JSTOR 358770.
• Douglass, Frederick. A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1845.
• Douglass, Frederick, ed. Stauffer, John. Random House. 2003. My Bondage and My Freedom: Office I - Life equally a Slave, Part II - Life equally a Freeman, with an introduction by James McCune Smith. New York: Miller, Orton & Mulligan. 1855.
• Gates, Jr. Henry Louis, ed. Frederick Douglass, Autobiography. New York: Library of America. 1994.
• Oakes, James. The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics. New York: W.W. Norton & Visitor, Inc. 2007.

External links [edit]

• Frederick Douglass' Descendants Deliver His 'Fourth of July' Spoken language (video)
• First edition of the publication of Douglass' spoken language
• Discussion of the pamphlet from The Public Domain Review
• What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? public domain audiobook at LibriVox

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F

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