What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, also known as the “Fourth of July Speech” is a public oratory piece Frederick Douglass gave at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York on an invitation by the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society on July 5, 1852, to celebrate 76 years of the American independence. Frederick Douglass was an American orator and statesman known for his powerful and thought-provoking speeches as a contribution to the abolition of slavery and emancipation of the people of color in the States

Through this speech, Douglass artistically challenged the prevalent notions about America’s greatness through a juxtaposition of the situations in the 1776 and contemporary 1850s where the nation was seemingly failing in its ideals upon which it was built by its founding fathers. With a plethora of references from the Christian Bible, the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the active slave trade in the country, the social reformer stroke a compelling argument about the injustice inflicted on the slaves against their rights and the inevitability of the abolition of slavery in the following years. The rhetorical strategies he employed in his deliverance of the pressing conditions of the slaves in facts and reality garnered him great attention.

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July | Summary

Douglass’ speech begins with an acceptance of his limited experience and inappropriate position for delivering a speech on the celebratory occasion of America’s independence. He inserts his background as a runaway slave to express his “astonishment as well as gratitude” for the opportunity given to him. A journey into the past concerning America’s battle against the British domination sets in motion as the speaker recounts the efforts and sacrifices of the founding fathers to free their country from the foreign rule. He narrates the historical events as a story to trace the progression of the revolutionary sentiments and noble cause.

The newly independent nation comes into existence on the principles the Declaration of Independence enlists as equality, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The leaders are praiseworthy according to Douglass but, gradually altering his direction of thought, interrogates his presence on the stage and the significance of independence to slaves who undergo a distancing from these founding ideas every day. Why should slaves celebrate or honor this day when they do not hold their basic rights in the country? He proceeds on the subject of “American Slavery” by producing evidence that has generated the gap between the slaves and the white population over the years. Humanity’s lost way to them which is a consequence of ignorance of the slave trade, doctrinal manipulation, application of the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence according to one’s own suitability, and discriminatory laws. Fourth of July to the American black man is “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.”

The speech exposes the hypocrisy of the white Americans where their beliefs fail to align with their actions. Douglass culminates his words on a hopeful note by invoking the Constitution which does not mention a word about slavery and its desirability as no man would ever wish to be a slave in his own home. With the advent of globalization, America would not be able to hide its unfair practices against the African-American community, and “the doom of slavery is certain.”

 

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July | Analysis

 

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July | Historical Context

The Colonial regime paved way for the transportation of slaves from different parts of the world, mostly from the African continent to work in southern states of America on cash crop plantations that generated a great source of income. However, when the thirteen colonies of America declared their independence in 1776, no future provisions for slaves were looked after. They had no alternative to earn their livelihood and thus continued being slaves as a practice in the south, though the northern states discontinued it.

The speech was delivered by Douglass in 1852 amid the rising tension between the north and the south and the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 that legally required the slaves to return back to their owners. He was invited by the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York to commemorate 76 years of American independence. If popular reports are to be believed, he was invited on July 4 which is the day of Independence but opts the next day for his oration to cast a new date for slaves to remember the American independence from their perspective. As an escapee from slavery himself, the speaker radically exposed the facade of American ideals and compelled his listeners to re-evaluate and reconsider their notions about the contemporary events of the nation, especially to support the abolition of slavery which happened 13 years later in 1865.

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July | Tone

Throughout the speech, Douglass attempts to balance out his contempt and resentment against his fellow white Americans with praise for the founding fathers who developed a nation based on ideals necessary for human lives. There are moments of sarcasm to remark the foolishness in thought and reason that most people from his audience must believe in, and snippets of hope that sooner or later slavery will cease to exist.

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July | Key Statements

Douglass’ initial remarks on America as a young nation that is still at an “impressible stage of her existence” point to his hopefulness in the implicit revolutionary ideas he would be proposing in his speech further. The belief that the country can still be warded off from the already conditioning ideologies that give rise to discriminatory practices gives his words the credibility of an impactful speaker speaking for a purpose and with sound reasoning.

There are certain statements that Douglass proposes by dividing his speech under various heads:

The Present 

In his attempt to bring forward the contemporary atmosphere of rising disparity between the slaves and the whites, Douglass self-reproaches his presence on the stage under the garb of vehement questioning to the audience—

why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? 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?”

The hypocrisy under which the white Americans have been hiding for so long finally exposes itself through the speaker’s accusatory truth. He does not hesitate to put forward “AMERICAN SLAVERY” as the prime focus of his endeavor.

From a slave’s point of view, it deems necessary to prove that he is a man i.e. a human deserving humane treatment. Ironically, Douglass ends up proving it without his will through a syllogistic understanding of equations employing law enforcement and hence punishment. The essential recognition of the fact that “there is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him” poignantly lays bare the reality of the 4th of July which hence is a day “that reveals to…[a slave], more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”

• The Internal Slave Trade

Slavery’s existence owes to the slave trade that the nation’s politics, as well as religion, assist in sustaining. Black men and women are bought and sold in the market like a commodity. Families ruin, children separate from their parents, and women wail for them but none of these is enough to generate sad pathos in the slave owners. Topping this is the injustice that these men and women experience in the chains of law.

“The Fugitive Slave Law makes MERCY TO THEM, A CRIME; and bribes the judge who tries them.”

Their own testimony stands for nothing and without the approval of presenting a witness, the law successfully sides with the oppressor.

• Religious Liberty 

Douglass’ allusion to the Scottish Reformation and its religious leader John Knox for popularizing religious freedom is a biting critique of the church of America which “does not esteem “the Fugitive Slave Law” as a declaration of war against religious liberty” implying the church’s notion of religion as simply “a form of worship, an empty ceremony, and not a vital principle… It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness.” The speaker in effect exposes the farcical religion that his nation was invested in. It is the same religion through which colonialism attracted conversions and the blacks who looked to Christianity as a source of emancipation and equality were rid of the promise.

• The Church Responsible

Certain people in power, in this case, religious power have accommodated slavery as a misguided sign of divinity. They promote the master-slave bond as a “duty of all the followers of Lord Jesus Christ” which is a manipulative stunt. Douglass claims that the “American church is guilty when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery, but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in connection with its ability to abolish slavery.” Nothing so cruel can be a dictate from divinity. If the church can instruct to follow the codes of slavery, it also possesses the authority to abolish this inhumane practice and eradicate it from America’s soil forever.

• Religion in England and Religion in America

English colonized America and the latter obtained its freedom in the year 1776. The concept of slavery was a British proposal that England successfully did away with, unlike America. The Church of England participated in the termination and thus the anti-slavery movement there did not accuse the church or the religion. Similarly, “the anti-slavery movement in this country will cease to be an anti-church movement, when the church of this country shall assume a favorable, instead of a hostile position towards that movement.” These “national inconsistencies” brand America’s “republicanism as a sham,…humanity as a base pretense, and…Christianity as a lie.” 

• The Constitution 

Douglass presses on reading the Constitution which according to him is a “GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT” that does not mention slavery at all. So the premise on which slavery is flourishing in the country tends to be false. This prosperity of the wealthy, cruel, and insolent slave owners and other white Americans will soon witness doom as America as a “nation can now [not] shut itself up, from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference.” Oceans which earlier became the subject of divide and conquer now “link the nations together.” Thus, if the American citizens will not work toward the abolishment of slavery, international forces will crop up their own ways of implementing the black community’s dream into reality.

 

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July | Rhetorical Devices

 

In this eye-opening speech, Douglass intends to appeal to the audience logically (logos), emotionally (pathos), and in spirit (ethos) regarding the practice of slavery as an abominable act against humanity. He is blunt and radical in his approach but strategically moves ahead with his oration to capitalize on his audience’s attention.

The initial segment of the speech rivets the attention of the audience to allow for a smooth seeping in of his arguments. In a meticulous fashion, he praises America’s founding fathers for their will, determination, and sacrifice in leading America towards the gates of independence. But then he turns the board and hits the dart of reality to enforce his point. He addresses America not as a nation that belongs to him but to the white Americans through the use of second-person pronouns “you” and your” that places the onus of the nation’s workings on his fellow non-slave citizens. This deliberate distancing of the self from one’s own nation paves a way for the speaker to lodge his resentment against the injustice he and his fellows have been and still are subjected to. The accusatory repetition of “you” and your” stabs the audience each time with the sword of guilt when Douglass addresses them on their blindsiding lifestyle.

Repetition and analogy are the key devices that Douglass employs to put forward his concerns. Presenting a few instances, we shall observe the impact his words tend to leave on his audience. When he praises the American forefathers, he compares their command to that of a ship’s anchor—

“As the sheet anchor takes a firmer hold, when the ship is tossed by the storm, so did the cause of your fathers grow stronger, as it breasted the chilling blasts of kingly displeasure.”

Their strong will and determination amidst socio-political turmoil could have not found a better expression. Similarly, when he asks his audience to recall the legal document of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and its significance on that day, he urges them to stick to the principles stated in the—“Cling to this day—cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight.” Also, the progress and failure of a nation in its trials and tribulations are compared to the course of a river which :

 “may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship… 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.”

 

Balancing is another strategy he peruses to navigate his ironic position as a former slave invited to deliver a speech on the celebration of independence. Though he admits his limited power and capability of performing well in the oratorical arts, he manages to exhibit his skills in the world of rhetoric. Independence equates to freedom and for a slave who has escaped the chains of slavery somehow without acquiring legal freedom from the atrocious practice, standing on a stage and speaking in an ornamental language about the greatness America embodies, would be nothing less than a charade. And he refutes from playing that game. He comes out in open and utters what his mind and heart have in store but in an organized and careful manner. Balancing is also achieved through antithesis which allows the posing of contradicting qualities against one another. For instance, Douglass describes the founding fathers as “peace men” who “preferred revolution.” 

Close to antithesis is a contrast that displays opposing effects of the same event or situation. Douglass draws a difference between the political men of his age and that at the time of America’s independence—

“How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! How unlike the politicians of an hour!”

A similar difference he expresses in the significance the day of independence marks for the slaves and the whites—

“The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”

This dichotomy of experiences of two different sets of people further advances his cause of enlightening or rather rendering a realization to his listeners.

It is a psychological fact that humans tend to remember things when heard in a group of three. Douglass taps this cerebral element and works in groups of three to produce various assertions during his speech which performs well as a medium of rhetoric to imprint a thought on others. This is called as a tricolon. Instances of it are seen in phrases like —

“such restraints, burdens and limitations” and “it deemed wise, right and proper.” 

 

This weighing on words with similar meanings is also another form of repetition. The speaker however also prefers to use repetition as his most powerful oratory accessory. In the following excerpt from the speech we can notice the use of the word “American” quite a few times:

“I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. This is esteemed by some as a national trait—perhaps a national weakness. It is a fact, that whatever makes for wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! will be found by Americans. I shall not be charged with slandering Americans if I say I think the Americans can side of any question may be safely left in American hands.”

This conscious pointing out to Americans again works for the distancing effect Douglass is generating throughout his speech. He is in a way establishing his difference from his audience.

America’s indifference to slavery sparks his resentment against the nation and through the sentential adverb device of rhetoric narration, he condemns his country publicly—“America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.” The bitter tone he manages to adopt as his speech progresses showcases his pent-up anger against the fallacies that promoted slavery. He rages against the incomprehensibility of educated Americans to decide what is ethically right and wrong in society. He comments:

“What, 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 irons, 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? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength, than such arguments would imply.”

This reverse psychology trick proves to be successful when the entire hall sits in silence after his speech.

The rhythmic quality of Douglass’ speech is not an easily escapable observation. Anaphora usually is a defining attribute of poetry but the pulsating beat of the speech imbibes this device for its benefit. An instance of the same is read in his strong assertion to fight against injustice as a moral and ethical principle every human should live by— “To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor.” 

Last but not the least; a speech is incomplete without some ironic snippets to expose the hypocrisy prevalent in the country. Douglass blatantly charges his nation with inviting to its “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…[its] money to them like water; but the fugitives from… [America’s] own land,… [it] advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill.”

Also, he pins on the Americans who “in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave…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!…[They] are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America.” 

This conveniently ambiguous attitude of white Americans towards their black fellows is highly condemnable and unveils the darkness that dwells inside their hearts and conscience.

Douglass also inserts famous lines from different literary pieces such as English playwright William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life” and the biblical hymn Psalm 137 from the Book of Psalms. Through his impressive display of knowledge in various disciplines and impactful address, Douglass successfully dispels the notion of illiteracy and inferiority surrounding African-Americans, especially slaves. His intellectual words also employ an emotional and personal anecdote to connect with his audience on a more humane level when he recollects his disturbing nights—

“In the deep still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead heavy footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door.” 

However, towards the end of the speech, he assures himself as well as his audience that the advent of globalization will ensure an end to slavery and closes his address with a poem by William Lloyd Garrison titled “The Triumph of Freedom” emphasizing the impending freedom from slavery.