frederick douglass speech transcript

Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. They inhabit all our Southern States. Americans! It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when he declared that There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.. By that act, Mason and Dixons line has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States. 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 far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. What was possible for him, he sincerely believed was possible for any man who was willing to work hard. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Frederick Douglass: (07:35) 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? Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. This Fourth [of] July isyours, notmine. The minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear butoneside; andthatside, is the side of the oppressor. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. 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. You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. 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. 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? As the sheet anchor takes a firmer hold, when the ship is tossed by the storm, so did the cause of your fathers grow stronger, as it breasted the chilling blasts of kingly displeasure. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. 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? 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. Sydney Smith tells us that men seldom eulogize the wisdom and virtues of their fathers, but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! He can bring no witnesses for himself. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. Oh! Yet they persevered. I am not that man. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Go search where you will. 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. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. Get a weekly digest of the weeks most important transcripts in your inbox. Transcript Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? That point is conceded already. 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. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. Like our content? Easily integrate Rev using our robust APIs to start building your product quickly. Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. 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. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. we wept when we remembered Zion. Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Would you have me argue that man is entitled to Liberty, that he is the rightful owner of his body? To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. The fact that the church of our country, (with fractional exceptions), does not esteem the Fugitive Slave Law as a declaration of war against religious liberty, implies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, andnota vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? 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 din of business, too, is hushed. 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 and question and to denounce with all the emphasis I can command everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. 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. O! 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 signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. Your cause would be much more likely to succeed. The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nations destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. 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. 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. All Rights Reserved. Is it at the gateway? There is not a nation of the earth, guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a threepenny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard-earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers of your country. or is it in the temple? 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. 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. Nobody doubts it. But I fancy, I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression upon the public mind. Its the news, without the news. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. 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. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. You may well cherish the memory of such men. Industry-leading accurate legal transcription to ensure you dont miss a statement. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. The manhood of the slave is conceded. 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. 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. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. I doubt if there be another nation on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. Morel is right that the 1876 speech by Frederick Douglass is remarkable and masterful. The power is co-extensive with the Star-Spangled Banner and American Christianity. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. 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. But now is the time, the important time. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! 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. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. 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. I shall not be charged with slandering Americans, if I say I think the American side of any question may be safely left in American hands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood.

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