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Here Was One
No. 4
Grant Hodges
July 02, 2023
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July
Dear Reader,
Independence Day is right around the corner, and when we think about the Fourth of July, we often think of the Declaration of Independence, of the Founding Fathers, and of the beginning of the American Revolution. (Or maybe we just think about hot dogs and fireworks.) For this issue, though, I wanted to draw attention to one of the greatest American speeches by one of the greatest American minds.
Frederick Douglass (c. 1817-1895) was born a slave on a Maryland plantation. He escaped bondage in 1838 and became a renowned abolitionist, orator, and statesman. Although not usually thought of as an author, he wrote three autobiographies in his lifetime, all of which became bestsellers. In particular, his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (first published in 1845) is often cited as the greatest autobiography in the history of American letters, and it was a critical text for the abolitionist movement.
This week’s piece consists of several excerpts from Douglass’s brilliant antislavery oration—“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”—which was delivered on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York:
Excerpts from “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
By Frederick Douglass
On the Founding Fathers: “We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. But now is the time, the important time. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. You live and must die, and you must do your work.”
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On Arguing Against Slavery: “But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it….
“Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? 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. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.”
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On the Meaning of the Fourth of July: "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 denunciations 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 these United States, at this very hour.”
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On Douglass’s Hope for the Future: “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. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. 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. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind…. The fiat of the Almighty, ‘Let there be Light,’ has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light.”
Background
Douglass delivered his speech—the full text of which can be found here—at the invitation of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, which had been founded a year earlier. His audience included abolitionists, politicians, and even President Millard Fillmore. Douglass began by praising the Founding Fathers and their struggle for independence, but quickly moved on to criticizing Americans for betraying their values and allowing the institution of slavery to flourish. Douglass also offered an insightful argument against bondage based on the text of the Constitution (and the Declaration of Independence); and even noted the hypocrisy of certain religious institutions, which purported to be Christians while working to maintain the decidedly un-Christian institution of slavery. He closed with an uplifting message of hope for the future.
What It Offers
Douglass’s speech is a testament to the incredible power of words, and how they can be used to argue effectively. In his language (with numerous religious references to appeal to a predominantly Christian audience), his analogies (linking the abolitionist struggle with the Founders’ struggle for independence), and his various other rhetorical techniques (irony features prominently), Douglass constructed his oration with as much attention to language as any writer or author. And in terms of substance, Douglass rooted his appeals in logic, in humanity, and in his own authority (i.e., Aristotle’s logos, pathos, and ethos), all of which combined to have a powerful effect on his audience.
Less than a decade after Douglass’s speech, the Civil War would begin and America would ultimately abolish slavery and undergo its Second Founding. On this Independence Day, I look at his speech for a reminder that no lasting change can be brought about, except by words that reach the hearts and minds of others.
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What is the meaning of life? That was all—a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.