In 1852 abolitionist, orator, and former slave Frederick Douglass delivered his most famous speech: “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July”—a blistering review of the gap between the ideals of America and its failures in practice. Should be the centerpiece of July 4 celebration
Conversation
“Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us...The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”bit.ly/29lNffs
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“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, ...
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...in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery—the great sin and shame of America!
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O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.
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We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; ... the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
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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;...
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... 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, ...
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.. 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.
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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, ...
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“The church... is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. I would say, welcome infidelity! welcome atheism! welcome anything! in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines!
A religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes . . .is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind.
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“Notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented... I do not despair of this country. .. The doom of slavery is certain. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light.” #SaluteToAmerica
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