It’s the Fourth of July, so I had better crank this post out. In my last post, I provided some background to Frederick Douglass’ speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” and gave an overview of his opening comments, in which he praised the Founding Fathers for what they accomplished in their struggle for liberty. As I noted, Joy Reid’s recent comments about how Douglass said that the Fourth of July was just a holiday for slaveowners that celebrated not having to pay taxes to the British crown so they could have more money for the slave empire—there is not one hint of that in Douglass’ speech. Yes, as we will see in this post, he unleashes rhetorical fury regarding the celebration of the Fourth of July back in 1852, but at no point does he ever say what Joy Reid claims he said. Nevertheless, let’s look at his rhetorical fury.
The Evils of Slavery
The transition in Douglass’ speech can be seen with his comments about George Washington and the Washington Monument. In his concluding remarks in his introduction, where he praises the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence, Douglass remarks that George Washington, because he was a great man, freed all his slaves before he died. Tragically, the very monument that was erected to honor Washington, was built by slave labor. With that, Douglass launches into a full-throated condemnation of slavery and the shameful hypocrisy of the Fourth of July.
Douglass’ main point is obvious. For the black slave, the Fourth of July is an exceptionally bitter day, precisely because it is a celebration of liberty and freedom. The slave sees his slaveowners celebrating Independence Day, while he, the slave, is still in chains. For him, the Fourth of July celebrations is like pouring salt into an open wound…a wound that the slaveowners have inflicted on them.
For that reason, Douglass says things like, “I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. …This Fourth of July is yours, not min. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” American slavery has made the Fourth of July a shameful day. Douglass doesn’t mince words. His words are a rhetorical gatling gun: “America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are degraded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and denounce…the great sin and shame of America!”
He states there is no need to try to prove to slaveowners that slaves are human beings because the very slaves laws the southern states have enacted, like punishing and fining teaching a slave to read and write, is proof that slaves are human beings. You don’t pass a law to punish a dog for pooping on your rug—you just punish him when he does. You pass laws to deal with human behavior—so a law that punishes a slave for something is, in and of itself, an admission that the slave is a human being. For that reason, Douglass says he doesn’t have to prove slavery is wrong. Even slaveowners know deep down that slavery is wrong. Douglass states, “There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.” Translation? If a slaveowners argues slavery is okay, as soon as someone says, “Okay then, let’s enslave you!” that slaveowner will say, “Oh, no…it’s not okay for me!”
After that, Douglass launches into a horrific description of the slave trade, from the slave ships from Africa, to the slave auctions, to the driving of the slaves down to places like New Orleans. In is in this portion of the speech where Douglass briefly tells of his experience as a slave child in Baltimore, hearing and seeing the new slaves be transported in the middle of the night to be eventually sold like chattel.
Of course, the main target of Douglass’ rhetorical attack is that of the Fugitive Slave Act, which had recently been passed in 1850. It basically made it federal law that slaves who had escaped to the north to be apprehended and taken back to the south without any due process. On top of that, it made it virtually impossible for any free black man accused of being a slave to even defend himself. In the words of Douglass, “Mason and Dixon’s line has been obliterated” because of the Fugitive Slave Act. It effectively legalized open hunting season for slave hunters on any and all black men and women, even in the north. Because of that, Douglass thundered, “The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and to all rights in this republic, the rights of God included! For black men there is neither law nor justice, humanity nor religion.” For Douglass, the Fugitive Slave Law “stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation.”
It was because of the American slave trade in general, and the Fugitive Slave Act in particular, that opened the Fourth of July to the charge of rank hypocrisy. Douglass said it was hypocritical to “invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad” and then allowed slave hunters to “advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill…the fugitives in your own land.” It was hypocritical to “profess to believe that of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth” and then “notoriously hate (and glory in your hatred) all men whose skins are not colored like your own.” Then, citing the Declaration of Independence itself, Douglass declared it was hypocritical to declare that you “hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” only to hold down in bondage one-seventh of the country’s population.
With that, Douglass brings his indictment to a crescendo, which I will simply quote: “Fellow citizens! I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing and a bye-word to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes! Oh, be warned! Be warned! A horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation’s 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!”
Douglass’ Conclusion
With his main comments at an end, Douglass concludes his speech by circling back to where he started, with some final thoughts about the Founding Fathers and the founding documents of the nation. Some people, Douglass says, try to claim that slavery is allowed in the Constitution that the Founding Fathers framed. Not so, says Douglass. Such a claim is slander to the Founding Fathers’ memory. Nothing in the Constitution is pro-slavery. To the contrary, it is “a glorious liberty document.” Douglass says, “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.” He then says, “Take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.”
Far from despairing, despite what was then the current blight of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act, Douglass ends his speech with hope. He says, “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.”
There You Have it
When you take into account the full context of Frederick Douglass’ full speech, it has a decidedly different ring to it than the snide and distorting comments of someone like Joy Reid. Sadly, though, the attitude Joy Reid has displayed in her recent comments about the Fourth of July and her attempt to make it seem that Frederick Douglass was “on her side,” seems to be growing in this country these days. It is something I’m going to explore a bit further tomorrow, on the 174th anniversary of Douglass’ speech.
