Frederick Douglass’ was an African American man that was catered to the abolitionist movement after growing up as a slave. When he was just twelve years old, his slaveholder’s wife and other white children in the neighborhood taught him the alphabet. Douglass’ was one of the most intellectual of his time because of his distinct ability to read and write even though others of his kind could not. His speech titled as What to the Slave is the Fourth of July questioned the everyday practices of the American people. Some of which would be the enslaving of the black ethnicity, the hypocrisy of the United States government, as well as the wrong teaching of the Declaration of Independence. Thirty years before Douglass’ death, the actions of slavery …show more content…
His speech and other literary documents helped develop him as a trailblazer in the African American community. In the excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, it mentions the total equality of all men from creation. If that is so true, then Douglass has a problem with this message because that is not how America is at the moment. His main purpose throughout his life was to end the actions of slavery in our nation and his speech helped spark that movement. Douglass’ believes that slaves are men as well, so the when the Declaration states that “All men are created equal,” the American founders are not holding true to their word. He does not think that America can truly be a nation when they do not follow the Declaration that they created seventy-five years ago. If the government aligned these standards then we should hold true to them. We follow ninety percent of everything else in the Declaration and when the reading gets to the subject of all people should be treated equally the American people want to overlook that. He believes that America needs to realize that slaves are not free so there is not a Fourth of July to celebrate every year for …show more content…
We supposedly stand as a united nation and treat everyone as equal but then look cause these slaves get whipped, raped, and forced to perform tedious assignment in brutal weather. There was not a good or valid reason for the punishment of these colored men and women. They were only treated in this way because of their skin color. We had black men and women that should be treated as equal because that is what the Declaration states. Instead they were maltreated in many ways and did not get the ability to voice their opinion as much as those that are free. Douglass mentions how others needed to give his ethnicity a better level of respect. He was right and his speech about Independence Day does the opposite of that. If other nations do not look down upon those that have foreign ancestors, then the United States has no reason to do
Douglass and Thoreau both felt as though the government as well as society turned a blind eye to the mistreatment of human beings, especially during slavery. He saw freedom being celebrated, but it just reminded him of how so many were willing to continue on not dealing with all of the wrong that had taken place. Regardless of what he saw before him, he refused to forget. Douglass felt that “to forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking,”. Instead, he chose to deal with the subject of American Slavery, in which he brought out the idea of individuals supporting what was wrong rather than what was
After suffering the overwhelming ferociousness and inhumanity of being a slave for over two decades , a black man by the name of Fredrick Douglass fled from enslavement and began to make a concerted effort to advance himself as a human being. Combating many obstacles and resisting numerous temptations, Douglass worked assiduously to develop into a knowledgeable gentleman rather than the involuntary alternative of being an unenlightened slave. In doing so, Douglass successfully immerged as one of the Civil War era’s most prominent antislavery orators. From his first major public speech at the age of 23, Douglass became widely renowned as a premier spokesperson for Black slaves and the movement for the abolition of slavery. In one of Douglass’ most distinguished speeches, “The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro,” he uses the intermittent occasion of speaking on behalf of African Americans to a multitude of White Americans to outline arguments against slavery. In that very speech, Douglass made it clear that, like countless African Americans during this time period,
In his speech he tries to make white people consider the behavior of black people. Specially their feelings towards a national occasion such as Independence Day. At the time of Douglass’s speech America were actually two different nations, white and black. Two separated nations one had great benefits after the independence and another still fight for basic human rights. What does the independence means for people who still suffer after it? This question is the most important. In the Declaration of Independence. He is implying that these rights are not being extended to African Americans. When this country was created it was meant to be a plac...
On July 5th of 1852, the Ladies Antislavery Society of Rochester requested that emancipated slave, Fredrick Douglass, speak for their celebration of the United States’ national independence. Douglass accepted this request and presented a powerful speech that explained and argued his true beliefs and feelings concerning this event. He considered their decision to request him as a speaker on that day to be a mockery of his past and of the ongoing status of blacks as slaves in America at the time. Nevertheless, Douglass skillfully constructed his speech utilizing various methods that forced his audience to take him seriously and think twice about the issue of slavery in America. His passion about the subject, his ability to captivate his audience, and his persuasive skills combine to form a clearly effective speech that continues to be studied to this day. Douglass warmed up his audience by commending the moral and patriotic excellence of their forefathers. He then delivered the argument of his speech which cleverly criticized the hypocrisy of the institution of slavery and those who tolerated or supported it. Yet, to conclude his speech, Douglass asserts that there is still hope for the young nation so as not to leave the audience completely discouraged. The way in which Douglass constructed and delivered this speech had a lasting impact and left his audience with an effectively argued point to consider.
Frederick Douglass was an African American born in slavery in 1818 in Talbot County MD, he devoted his work to inspire blacks to believe that color need not to be a permanent influence on their dreams whilst reminding whites to be mindful and support equal access to the American dream. Douglass, thought himself how to read and at the age of sixteen rebelled against his slave master for humiliating, tormenting and all the beatings he received whilst with the slave master. There were whispers of him being the son of a slave master who was white and cruel to him and never talked about him. Douglas in search of the truth about himself never had a relationship with his mother because he was taken from her mom as an infant and
Douglass was speaking from experience and what he knew and been through so this is also what might have made the argument even stronger and everything he said more important. You wouldn’t know what’s going on unless you been through it and that’s a fact. The main argument in his speech is “To the American slave, the 4th of July is a cruel sham”, to make that argument stronger he stated that “The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted” and this here shows that laws support his argument that they are all humans and deserve to live as humans. He does not share in America’s blessing and he stated that by basically saying that the rich inheritance of justice and liberty is shared by everyone else except for him and his
As Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin known for black power movement stated, See, justice is a joke in this country, and it stinks of its hypocrisy”. The United States lives a hypocritical lie claiming “freedom” with the famous “all men are created equal” constitution, however America has denied those basic rights to colored men throughout decades. Frederick Douglass testifies to the hypocrisy of American slavery through his speech where he makes a strong point in defining what's wrong with America. Using a Toulmin model of rhetorical analysis, Frederick Douglass’s main claim is that people in America are hypocrites because they celebrate independence while the American society continues slavery.
Frederick Douglass was intense and unapologetically true with many of the things that he spoke about in his speech on July 5, 1852. And whether they are popular today or not, they still serve as true statements on society today. Celebrating Independence Day while another group of people are suffering harsh conditions is not just hypocrisy; it is an insult to that group of people’s intelligence. Frederick Douglass in his moving, but perfectly spoken speech, showed how at that time, America had such a long way to go as a nation; and even though there has been some progression, still has a long way to go as far as people being treated with their due
Frederick Douglass depicts the hypocrisy, horrors of slavery, and the immense inequalities between white Americans and African Americans in his speech. Specifically, he portrays the difference in the importance of the Fourth of July between the two races. The meaning of the holiday differs greatly between the two groups. In particular, he targets the hypocrisy of not just a group people, but the character of a nation.
Frederick Douglass was an American abolish, an author, and a orator. He escaped slavery at the age of 20. He wrote three autobiographies, that described how it was to be a important works of the slave narrative tradition. For 16 years he edited an influential black newspaper, and achieved international fame as an inspiring and persuasive speaker and writer. In thousands of speeches he spoke against slavery and racism. Frederick Douglass was the most important black american leader of the nineteenth century.
1.) Fredrick Douglass’s purpose in this speech was to explain the wrongfulness of slavery in America. Fredrick Douglass states in his speech “Are the great principles of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” and “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me.” These prove that the freedom and independence Americans have aren’t shared with the Africans when it should be that Africans have those rights as well. Frederick Douglass then talked about how badly whites treat blacks and how wrong it is. “There are 72 crimes in Virginia which, if committed by a black man, subject him to a punishment of death, while
He states that any just man who is not (unfair, pre-decided bad opinions) will see that his words are of truth. He speaks of the Constitution, he speaks of the Bible, and he speaks of God. With such credited references backing up his argument, it would almost make a man feel like the devil to even dare to disagree. For the last half of his speech, Douglass addresses what he should speak of, what he should argue. He goes into detail about each different aspect of why African Americans have the same natural right to freedom as do any other human beings. One by one, he suggests he argue about the slave being a man, that man be entitled to freedom, that it is wrong to make men "animals", and finally, that slavery is not wonderful/God-related. With each, he explains details about the fact that each argument is so basic, so understood, that it need not be argued. It all flows back to his own argument about the holiday on which he speaks. Freedom is the natural right of all
America in the mid to early nineteenth century saw the torture of many African Americans in slavery. Plantation owners did not care whether they were young or old, girl or boy, to them all slaves were there to work. One slave in particular, Frederick Douglass, documented his journey through slavery in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Through the use of various rhetorical devices and strategies, Douglass conveys the dehumanizing and corrupting effect of slavery, in order to show the overall need for American abolition. His use of devices such as parallelism, asyndeton, simile, antithesis, juxtaposition and use of irony, not only establish ethos but also show the negative effects of slavery on slaves, masters and
Frederick Douglass grew up during an unfortunate time in America when the term, "All man created equal", only applied to those who were white. Douglass, who was born a slave, had to undergo the evils and horrors of his unwanted reality. Born into oppression, Douglass had no means of escape as the powerful white slave owners did everything in their power to hold down their black property. He was taken from his mother at a very young age and dehumanized in every single way imaginable by his oppressors. Despite being dragged away from the care of his mother at such a young age, the thing that Frederick, and all other slaves, were deprived of the most was an education. Education, more than anything else, is what separates slaves from their
Douglass states, “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and loses his own soul? It may be said, also, What doth it profit a nation to gain the whole world, and lose its honor?” stating that America loses their honor when they call upon their citizens in time of war but once war has been won and America is in a time of peace they alienate those same citizens and make them slaves and discriminate against them again, which leads Douglass to ask this question, “Shall we be citizens in war, and aliens in peace? Would that be just?” Absolutely not! Douglass states that the negro has been a citizen three times and each time in a time of war. Never in a time of peace and that’s so true. In 1776 when America gained their independence The Constitution stated that all men were created equal and rightly so. In Americas time of need nobody discriminated on who they were fighting alongside but rather welcomed the brother to arms. Once the war was over the African Americans went back to the plantations and to slavery. What did American constitution have to say then? They acted as though the same man who gave his life for his country those three separate times was not worthy to be a citizen afterwards due to the color of their skin. Well the right to bear arms and fight for his country grants you the right to suffrage, which was Fredrick Douglass’s