I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. Follow the drove to New Orleans. 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. The time was when such could be done. Add English on-screen subtitles for videos. Frederick Douglass: (07:35) How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land? Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. There are 72 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 these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment. The Best Speech-to-Text Solution for Your Business Learn how Rev fits into your businesses workflow. we wept when we remembered Zion. Under Title 17 U.S.C. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. In a very telling sign, the fateful words of Frederick Douglass from a speech he delivered 170 years ago still resonate very much in 2022 as Black people in America continue the fight for the same kind of equality that the legendary abolitionist was demanding back in the mid-19th century. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Space is comparatively annihilated. In speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. 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. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. Further, if this demand were not complied with, another Scotland would be added to the history of religious liberty, and the stern old Covenanters would be thrown into the shade. The drove moves tardily. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. WebIn this speech, Frederick Douglass reflected on how the outpouring of joy at the conclusion of the Civil War turned to mourning with Lincolns assassination. Transcripts & captions for a better media workflow. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. His own testimony is nothing. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers yourUnion. 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. This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. Oppression makes a wise man mad. 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. Fellows citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called to speak here today? On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. This is esteemed by some as a national trait perhaps a national weakness. Your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. His death, according to Douglass was not only tragic, but also prevented recently freed slaves and African Americans from gaining the ear of wise and well-intentioned leader. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. 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, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty. YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge for the fatherless; plead for the widow., 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. The Fugitive SlaveLawmakes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them. I will use the severest language I can command. For who is there so cold, that a nations sympathy could not warm him? I will not excuse. But, to proceed. 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? But I fancy, I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression upon the public mind. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. 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? The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains! They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. That point is conceded already. He is a bird for the sportsmans gun. Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. 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. My subject then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. Go search where you will. You 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. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the lame man leap as an hart.. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. Not fewer than forty Americans have, within the past two years, been hunted down and, without a moments warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend (Rev. When the dogs in your street, 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, then I will argue with you that the slave is a man. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! In the language of Isaiah, the American church might be well addressed, Bring no more vain ablations; incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting. It was, Milloy continued, a critique of a nation that claimed to hold dear the principles of freedom, justice and equality even as it enslaved black people.. Fellow-citizens! 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. Who can reason on such a proposition? By an act of the American Congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness. Its deeply moving to hear Douglass defend the honor of Black soldiers in his 1863 speech, The Proclamation And a Negro Army, read by Colman Domingo, while his final speech, 1894s Lessons of the Hour, lays out the crucial steps toward achieving equality that have yet to be followed today.The actor selected to read these words is Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation? It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your shouts of Liberty and equality, hallow mocked, your prayers and hymns your sermons and Thanksgivings with all your religious parade in solemnity are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, a thin veil to cover up crimes, which would disgrace a nation of savages. 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. I am not that man. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christians God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men! Is it at the gateway? Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. There is not time now to argue the constitutional question at length nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. Did this law concern the mint, anise, and cumin abridge the right to sing psalms, to partake of the sacrament, or to engage in any of the ceremonies of religion, it would be smitten by the thunder of a thousand pulpits. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. 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!