Frederick Douglass Discusses the meaning of the Fourth of July

Frederick Douglass Discusses the meaning of the Fourth of July

 

As the city's most distinguished resident, Frederick Douglass was requested to address the

citizens of Rochester on the Fourth of July celebration in 1852. The speech he delivered, under

the title, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?", illustrates the great power, insight and

integrity of the man.

Fellow Citizens:

Pardon me, and allow me to ask, 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?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully

returned to these questions. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For

who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to

the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so

stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the halleluiahs of a nation's jubilee, when

the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the

dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap like a hare."

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. I am not

included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the

immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in

common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by

your fathers is shared by you, not by me. 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. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to

join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean,

citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And

let me warn you, that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up

to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable

ruin. I can today take up the lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people.

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes! We wept when we remembered Zion. We

hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away

captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us, required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one

of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O

Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave

to the roof of my mouth."

Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of

millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the

jubilant shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not remember those bleeding children of

sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of

my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular

theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before

God and the world. My subject, then, fellow citizens, is "American Slavery." I shall see this day

and! its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing here, identified with the

American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that

the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July.

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. 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 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! "I

will not equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command, and yet

not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who

is not at heart a slave-holder, shall not confess to be right and just.

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 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. The slave-holders themselves acknowledge it in the

enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on

the part of the slave. There are seventy-two 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. What is this but the

acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of

the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute-books are covered with

enactments, forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read and

write. When you can point to any such laws m reference to the beasts of the field, then I may

consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, 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!

For the present it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing

that, while we are plowing, 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 the enterprises common to other men digging gold in

California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living,

moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above

all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality

beyond the grave-we are called upon to prove that we are men?

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 understand?

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 who does not know that slavery

is wrong

for him.

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 last, 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.

What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that

our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman

cannot be divine. Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time

for such argument is past.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh! had I the ability, and

could I reach the nation's ear, I would today 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. 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

propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its

crimes against God and man must be denounced.

What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than

all other days of 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 denunciation 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 of the earth guilty of practices more

shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of

the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found

the last, lay your facts by the side of the every-day practices of this nation, and you will say with

me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival

Black Proverb of the Month

Black Proverb of the Month
April, 2013

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 Until the lion has his or her own storyteller, the hunter will always have the best part of the story.  

Background, Explanation, Meaning and Everyday Use

The above proverb, which exists in different forms in many parts of the Africa, describes the unknown realities in the forest when a lion and a hunter come face to face. In the proverb the lion, considered to be the king of the jungle and the most powerful animal, symbolizes all the animals. NOTE: Variants are: Until lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter. Until lions start writing down their own stories, the hunters will always be the heroes.     

Hunters are powerful and respected personalities in their communities. They are believed to have some supernatural powers. They often have great stories to tell that emphasize their achievements and their hunting skills. People often praise them and celebrate their exploits. This is especially true when they come home with big animals like an elephant or a lion.

Even though people celebrate their stories, they are also aware that they will never know all that goes on in the forest. When a hunter brings home a lion (or any animal) it may very well be due to the hunter's skills, but it may as well be due to pure luck. The lion might have been sleeping or injured. No matter in what circumstances the lion is killed, a hunter will always tell a story that makes the hunter shine. Is the hunter telling the true story or just bragging? No one will ever know.

This Proverb refers to this unknown part of the struggle between the lion and the hunter because we know well that a story is never complete until one hears from all three sides. The one who does not have the voice is often the loser. This loser might well be the lion to the hunter. It is in these circumstances when one voice dominates the other that this proverb is often heard.

Biblical Parallels

The best biblical text that comes into mind is the Exodus Story, particularly Exodus 3: 9-16. By having their own storyteller, Moses, they developed a new perspective on their realities. Until then their story was told by the Egyptians who referred to them as slaves. They were aliens in a foreign land and as such they had to undergo many hardships. They were nothing but what their oppressors wanted them to be, and they had nothing apart from what was been given to them by their masters. Being a dominated majority in a slaveholding culture, Moses and this people could not have any other worldview than the one created by its oppressor in order to keep them oppressed. To free themselves from such bondage, the Moses and this people had the courage and the genius to retell their story from their own perspective. In so doing they rejected their received identity and gave themselves a new one.

First of all they ceased to see themselves as a slave which was an accepted practice in their imposed worldview. Now they perceived themselves as oppressed person which was a new concept in describing the same reality. Second, they refused to consider themselves as an inferior class. Now they were the chosen people. They moved from being at the bottom of the Egyptian social classification to being a unique people set apart by God.

Neither the reality of slavery nor the fact of being strangers had changed. What changed was their way of telling the story, of describing their reality. They entered into a new cosmology with a new set of values and a new perception of themselves. Through their belief in a God who was liberator, they would come to free themselves from the Egyptian bondage.

Contemporary Use and Religious Application

What does this mean for us Blacks today? We Blacks often take history as it has been narrated to us and do little questioning. But, as the proverb tells us, unless we have our own story-teller, the oppressors will always have the best part of the story. To free ourselves from oppression, we must tell our history from our own viewpoint. The current history has been told and written from the dominating class's perspective-white and black oppressors alike-in such a way that the victims' voices are silenced. Our duty is to tell the Black story in the way that does justice to our sufferings and our struggles.

Let us take an example of how history is told from the perspective of the winners. When the Europeans came to America they called themselves colonizers and conquerors. Now they are considered to be foundering fathers, and citizens.   

But when Africans were stolen to the United States they are referred to as black cargo. How will we tell the same story?

Telling our own story also implies that we must reject the discriminatory and oppressive expressions used to describe us. We must invent a new language to talk about ourselves. Indeed, the way we choose to name our experience affects the way we look at the world. This is especially true for us Africans (black stolen cargo). The way we came to perceive ourselves since our contact with the West has drastically changed the way we look at reality. For instance, the way we see ourselves today as Black, Negro, Coloured, Afro-American, African American, People of Colour, and Black American was absent in Africa a centuries ago. As we have all these attributes, we are expected to behave in a certain way, and we must come to think about ourselves in ways of power and love. Our worldview is defined by these attributes. We must accept a way of portraying ourselves, and not by the dominant culture, because, this is not sufficient. We must also create our own terminology to talk about ourselves.

Hence just like Moses and this people refused not to move the landmarks of old and to tell their story of slavery and called it oppression, we too must retell the history of slavery, reconstruction, Black Codes, Jim Crow, lynching’s, Segregation, Civil Rights, Integration, Human Rights, and our contributions to human civilization because: Until the lion has his or her own storyteller, the hunter will always have the best part of the story.

Celebrating Black History Month

1. In March 2008, the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination condemned what it found to be racial disparities in the death penalty and in the sentencing of youth to life without parole for crimes committed when they were under 18, a practice the committee wants stopped. The committee called on authorities to take steps, including a freeze on the death penalty, to root out racial bias.
2. A 2007 Yale University of Law study revealed that African-American defendants receive death penalty at three times the rate of white defendants in cases where the victims are white. In addition, killers of white victims are treated more severely than people who kill minorities, when it comes to deciding what charges to bring.
3. Since 1977, the overwhelming majority of death row defendants have been executed for killing white victims, although African-Americans make up about half of all homicide victims. African Americans account for one in three people executed since 1977.
4. The U.S. “war on drugs” disproportionately targets urban minority neighborhoods. Two national reports released in early 2008 found that although whites commit more drug offenses, African Americans are arrested and imprisoned on drug charges at much higher rates.
5. The increase in the annual number of black arrests was greater than in the annual number of white arrests: black drug arrests were 4.8 times greater in 2007 than in 1980.
6. The Human Rights Watch discovered that across 34 states studied, most drug offenders are white, yet a black man is 11.8 times more likely than a white man to be sent to prison on drug charges, and a black woman is 4.8 times more likely than a white woman.
7. Studies of discrimination in housing markets reveal that African American or Latino/a testers experience some form of differential treatment roughly half of the time. Even the most conservative measures reveal that at least 25% of the time there will be discrimination in many important types of behavior by rental or real estate agents.