2. Frederick Douglas - July 5th, 1852
During the 1850s, Frederick Douglass typically spent about six months of
the year traveling extensively, giving lectures. During one winter --
the winter of 1855-1856 -- he gave about 70 lectures during a tour that
covered four to five thousand miles. And his speaking engagements did
not halt at the end of a tour. From his home in Rochester, New York, he
took part in local abolition-related events.
On July 5, 1852,
Douglass gave a speech at an event commemorating the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, held at Rochester's Corinthian Hall. It was
biting oratory, in which the speaker told his audience, "This Fourth
of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." And he asked them, "Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?"
Within
the now-famous address is what historian Philip S. Foner has called
"probably the most moving passage in all of Douglass' speeches."
“Fellow-citizens,
pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What
have 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? 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?...
…I am not
included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence
only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you
this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice,
liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by
you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought
stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may
rejoice, I must mourn. 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 and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by
asking me to speak today?...
…What, to the American slave, is
your 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. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy
license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are
empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence;
your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns,
your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity,
are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil
to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation
on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people
of the United States, at this very hour.
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 the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:
God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.
God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant's presence cower;
But to all manhood's stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his Prison-house, to thrall
Go forth.
Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive --
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the peril or the cost,
Be driven."
HW - Frederick Douglas and "12 Years a Slave" Questions - answer in separate document and submit to eBackpack.
1. What is the main point of Douglas' speech?
2. In what way does he point out the hypocrisy and irony of American slavery?
3. How does he judge American slavery in comparison to atrocities committed in other countries?
4. How did "12
Years a Slave" effect your understanding and feelings about slavery.
Include at least 3 specific examples from the film to support your
answer.
5. What part of the movie was the most shocking/saddening to you? Why?
6. What lasting feeling about slavery did the movie leave you with?
7. At what age should students be shown "12 Years a Slave"? Be sure to provide reasoning to support your answer.
