frederick douglass speech transcript3 on 3 basketball tournaments in colorado

weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn! They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. They are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. 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 4th of July. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. Many of its most eloquent Divines. WebThe Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass. The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nations history the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. I will use the severest language I can command. When Douglass delivered his famous The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, he was issuing a scathing indictment of American hypocrisy, Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy reminded readers. Douglass views the monument and the day's ceremonies as reflecting honor upon African Translated on-screen subtitles for videos. With head, and heart, and hand Ill strive, 8 Times Obama Showed Trump How Presidents Are Supposed To Celebrate The Fourth Of July, Welcome To The Cookout: 10 Lit Movies To Watch During July Fourth Holiday Weekend, 'Dilbert' Comic Creator Calls Black People A 'Hate Group,' Urges Segregation So Whites Can 'Escape', Bernie Mac Show Star Camille Winbush Is Not Ashamed Of Joining OnlyFans, Kyle Rittenhouse Faces 2nd Civil Lawsuit, Continues To Beg For Money From His Supporters, Ben Stein's 'Aunt Jemima' Rant Is A Master Class On White Privilege, Why Did tWitch Kill Himself? I think that, in whatever else I may be deficient, I have It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read and write. I cannot. Youmay rejoice,Imust mourn. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. Web"The Lessons of the Hour" Speech by Frederick Douglass, January 9, 1894 Friends and Fellow Citizens : No man should come before an audience like the one by whose presence I am now honored, without a noble object and a fixed and earnest purpose. In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the South; I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. WebA speech celebrating both Lincoln and African Americans freedom wrought by Lincoln. As with rivers so with nations. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority ofHimby whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teachthat we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. 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. Is that a question for Republicans? 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 speaking of it, relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? You profess to believe that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth, and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own. If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! An American judge gets ten dollars for every victim he consigns to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. The manhood of the slave is conceded. But I admit, where all is plain, there is nothing to be argued. Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you. Web" was a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery 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? This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Speech Transcript by Frederick Douglass, Congressional Testimony & Hearing Transcripts. R. R. Raymond) on the platform, are shining examples; and let me say further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slaves redemption from his chains. Frederick Douglass: (09:38) Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is, today, in active operation in this boasted republic. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Yet they persevered. VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' descendants deliver his 'Fourth of July' speech. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. The din of business, too, is hushed. To me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality. The propriety of the nation must be startled. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. 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. If I do forget, if I do not remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, may my right hand forget her cunning and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. I repeat, I am glad this is so. Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. 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, andlet the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and sermons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling and universal interest a nations jubilee. 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. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? Oppression makes a wise man mad. Would you argue more and denounce less? I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. Is it not astonishing that while we are plowing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metal of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold, that while we are reading, writing, and ciphering acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers that we are engaged in all the enterprises, common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planting, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all confessing and worshiping the Christian God and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave. And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. They were great in their day and generation. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. 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? Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of. The document is in the form of a Google Docs so it has a translation tool, dictionary, and voice to text. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide Like our content? We are called upon to prove that we are men. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. welcome atheism! Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God. In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: Th oppressd shall vilely bend the knee. The testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. Fromwhat quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our ranks, during the last two years, as from the Northern pulpit? 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. Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the market. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. What, then, remains to be argued? Is a matter, the set with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? You were under the British Crown. His own testimony is nothing. He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. There is blasphemy in the thought. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. WebBoth anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass speech. WebIn the late 1860sat a moment of great hope for the promise of equality under the lawthe famed orator and once-enslaved abolitionist Frederick Douglass took his Our Composite Nation speech on the road to argue for a plural American democracy. The causes which led to the separation of the colonies from the British crown have never lacked for a tongue. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. 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. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) the internal slave trade. It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. I am not that man. What then remains to be argued? 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. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. It would, certainly, prove nothing, as to what part I might have taken, had I lived during the great controversy of 1776. WebOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Douglass was a powerful Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. How unlike the politicians of an hour! As the champions of oppressors, the chosen men of American theology have appeared men, honored for their so-called piety, and their real learning. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Whether we turn to the declarations of the past or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. They who did so were accounted in their day, plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. From police shootings to the wage gap to crippling stereotypes (and everything in between), there are too many parallels today with what Douglass described in his speech to white America, including this relevant line. And am I therefore called upon to bring our humble offering to the national alter and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. He rose from the shackles of slavery to become an author, For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? WebOn January 9, 1894, at Washington, D.C.'s, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Frederick Douglass delivered his "The Lessons of the Hour" speech, which addressed the Transcript Descendants of Frederick Douglass read excerpts from one of his most famous speeches: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? A general shout would go up from the church, demanding repeal, repeal, instant repeal! Frederick Douglass thought that such rationalizations were crap, and he had the right to think so. Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your fathers stooped, basely stooped. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. I will not excuse. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! welcome anything! Though a biting The oath of any two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of slavery! "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. speech was delivered on July 5, 1852 as an address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. 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. Short bio of Frederick Douglass The Frederick Douglass Papers Library of Congress As noted here, that banquet was attended by prominent A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty, and, if the churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind, or most wickedly indifferent, they, too, would so regard it. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. The Sharps, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, the Buxtons, and Burchells and the Knibbs, were alike famous for their piety, and for their philanthropy. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation a religion, a church, and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God. 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. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. 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. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist 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? Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. 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. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. The style and title of your sovereign people (in which you now glory) was not then born. Speech-to-Text live streaming for live captions, powered by the worlds leading speech recognition API. had I the ability, and could I reach the nations ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. That year will come, and freedoms reign. Go search where you will. 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. WebFrederick Douglass speech What to a Slave is the Fourth of July effectively argues against slavery. be warned! I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. This truth is not a doubtful one. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. Am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to Rob them of their Liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with ions, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. You discourse eloquently on the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence, casts a stigma upon labor. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. You live and must die, and you must do your work. There is blasphemy in the thought. You could instruct me in regard to them. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now denounced is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States; that the right to hold and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes! When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, thenwill I argue with you that the slave is a man! be warned! 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. But, to proceed. In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. And the lame man leap as an heart, but such is not the case. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never higher than now. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has Section 107, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. 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! I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument. I am not that man. I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. I will not. We are met on the threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the church and ministry of the country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to fight or flee. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. Then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful? Travel through South America. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. I have detained my audience entirely too long already. It is not that pure and undefiled religion which is from above, and which is first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,without partiality, and without hypocrisy. But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains,stay there; and to the oppressor,oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man.

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