Alison Drasner, the project coordinator for the Somerville Museum, teamed up with Dave Ortega at the Somerville Media Center to prerecord voices of 50 Somerville residents, including my 7-year-old daughter, Charlotte, to read sections of the speech. Why, then, did Douglass speak as harshly as he did? With head, and heart, and hand Ill strive, Read the address in full onPBS. I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just. What is his opinion of the American Founders? The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. Space is comparatively annihilated. What is the main message of Douglass's speech? Its the birth of American Independence, the birth of a nation, and what the speech is saying is you must destroy first what you created and remake it, or it will be destroyed and you with it, says Blight. or is it in the temple? The Nativist party is rising. He begins his speech by modestly apologizing for being nervous in front of the crowd and recognizes that he has come a long way since his escape from slavery. You may well cherish the memory of such men. Douglass presented this speech to an antislavery societyan audience that was already on his side. A horrible reptile is coiled up in your nations bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! If youre not a person of color, its one thing to go to a couple of events or protests, or to read a few articles and move on. What is now known as the "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. But, he said, speaking more than a decade before slavery was ended nationally, a lot of work still needed to be done so that all citizens can enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Above your national, tumultuous joy the July 4th celebrations of white Americans were the mournful wails of millions whose heavy chains are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.. This year we mark both the 400th anniversary of the arrival of captive Africans to the British colonies and the 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Throughout this speech, as well as his life, Douglass advocated equal justice and rights, as well as citizenship, for blacks. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. The first autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, catapulted him to fame and invigorated the abolitionist movement. Douglass's own sons, Lewis and Charles, became two of the first to volunteer for the 54th, which ultimately comprised more than 1,000 men from 15 Northern states. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. One of the biggest challenges we face in our present moment is building sustainable movements that fundamentally change peoples minds about race and racism. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! All Rights Reserved. When from their galling chains set free, Douglass printed the speech in his newspaper, Frederick Douglass' Paper, and published 700 copies of it in pamphlet form. From what point of view does he look at it? The Act also denied suspected slaves trial by jury or even the ability to testify on their own behalf in court. The political party system was beginning to tear itself asunder over the expansion of slavery, he says. 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. 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. Is it at the gateway? For more information on this event visit CharlesHamiltonHouston.org. We unveiled the first 10 members of the FD200 today, on the 166th anniversary of Douglasss speech. She can speak not only to Douglass' historical importance but to the urgency and relevancy of his message in today's . Both critiques seek true fidelity to those principles we fail to keep. It is actually quite longwe use an abridged version for our readingsbut despite its length it is at once riveting and concise. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. America, by its nature, is never quite fulfilling all of those promises.. 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. At the time Douglass spoke, Blight says, the opportunity was ripe for a lecture on the moral crisis. He begins by praising the young nation and its origins in righteous protest against oppression by a tyrannical monarch. Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? As I mentioned earlier, the first reading was designed to the think about race in the Age of Obama. I remember that first year, looking out at the crowd I was filled with the kind of hope Douglass expressed at the end of his speech. 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. They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. We have a precise date for that first, momentous vote, which set the pattern of exclusion with which we still live, but no such precision marks the arrival of 50 captive Africans sometime in August, 1619. One of his famous speeches, called "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," was given on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, at an event in the Corinthian Hall. Go forth. See answers Advertisement bhawsarsakshi4 My original thought was a public reading prior to the holiday, which would prompt people to incorporate the speech or a discussion of its meaning in their holiday observations, whether in the back yard or the local library. Douglass repeatedly uses the pronouns you and your (rather than our and ours) throughout this section. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. Everyone is welcome to read; this event is free and open to the public. Douglasss searing ability to cut through the rhetoric of freedom and democracy lives on in works like these that reveal the enduring cruelty of the exemption as it continues to haunt our flawed legal and punishment systems. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. Nor in a tyrants presence cower; Mock said that Douglass has been a constant presence throughout her life. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. He point-by-point counters a. His friend Julia Griffith, the treasurer of the Rochester group that invited him to give the 1852 speech, was one of the people helping him fund-raise to keep the paper alive. Behind the Speech: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? | Time In Douglass' speech, his tone mainly appeals to emotions. One person who felt that way was Douglass, the famous abolitionist, who was himself born into slavery. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. Were not only going to be reading books like White Fragility, and Divided by Faith, but were also going to read and watch a number of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., and documentaries like 13th and King in the Wilderness, as we try to get at the root of racial division so we can come together to remove it. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. GAZETTE: Why is it important to do this kind of community-building work at a local level? Frederick Douglass, America's most famous anti-slavery activist and fugitive slave, saw no ground to celebrate: he saw the octopus arms of slavery stretched everywhere, exposing the hollowness. Well, we have all come to understand that while on its face this amendment appeared to outlaw forever slavery and involuntary servitude, its exception for those serving a punishment for crime left open the door for what Douglas Blackmon has called Slavery by Another Name and Ana DuVernays so painfully rendered film, 13th, revealed as continued oppression in the 21st century. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. Douglass' 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, described his time as an enslaved worker in Maryland. Oh! Before you read the speech you can follow these links to learn more about Douglasss life and the evolution of his thought in this period. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. is the popular name of a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on the Fifth of July 1852 in Rochester, N.Y..
Mysteries Of Lake Michigan,
Williams F1 Student Placement,
Conway Farms Golf Membership Cost,
Articles W