What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? (July 5,1852) Frederick Douglass

The Beginnings of Frederick Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey is born in 1818 on Holme Hill farm in Talbot County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Harriet Bailey, a slave. Frederick never knew his father but suspected him to be his owner, Captain Aaron Anthony. At the age of 12, he found a book called “ the Columbia Orator” based between a slave and a master who had ran away three times. Douglass played letter games with the poorer white kids. “You’ll be free as soon as you are twenty- one but I am a slave for life.” (Douglass 41)

The Beginnings of….. (cont.) At the age of 16, he was hired out to Mr. Covey, a "slave breaker", to destroy his spirit and force him to accept slavery. After learning to read, he envied his fellow slaves for their stupidity. (Douglas 43) “Are ye a slave for life?”, was asked by an Irishmen who Douglass generously helped one day. Those events lead him to becoming the First Great Leader of the African American race in the United States.

Historical Context When Douglass dared to confront his, patriotic American, audience with the painful truth. Many people, even fellow abolitionists, attacked Douglass for his audacity. (Bibliobase 65) Frederick Douglass’s words that day sent a slow, sneaky ripple affect through that audience and every other following generation up until today. The main issue was no equality and cruelty of slavery. He was trying to stress the fact that the slaves should not settle for just being the white man’s tool. He is the reason why the African Americans helped the Union fight against the Confederate in the Civil War. His speech inspired the abolishment of slavery in 1862 with help of Abraham Lincoln.

The Declaration of Independence did not positively affect the African-Americans. “Why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?” “The Fourth of July is yours not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” A giant black hole will always consist between the Whites and Blacks. “The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me.” Of all the things the Whites have done or celebrated, they are not worse than Fourth of July. “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 Fourth of July.”

Main Points (cont.) The country was disillusioned to how they unjustly treated the African-Americans. “America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.” The Whites knew in their hearts that slavery was wrong. “There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.” America is so blind when it considered itself as the top country. “There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practice more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.” The 4 th of July is a mockery to the black slave. “…a day that reveals to him, more that all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”

Questions to Consider If you were a fellow abolitionists, how would you have responded to Frederick Douglass’s speech? Could a black American still hold feelings of patriotism? How and Why? Do you white Americans were little or big hypocrites or just plain ignorant?

Bibliography Douglass, Frederick. Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass. Dolphin Books. Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, New York Bellesiles, Michael. Crouch, Charles. Angelos, Mark; Ed. Bibliobase: Primary Source Documents for History. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston and New York. 2006