Posted on 07/04/2023 5:18:29 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
While Frederick Douglass is obviously not a Founding Father, his life embodied our nation’s highest ideals, and his speeches were delivered to promote these values. And on this day — the day we commemorate the inception of our nation with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 — Douglass is one man that deserves to be associated with the Fourth of July.
Born a slave in 1818 in Maryland with the given name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, Douglass was a strong-willed and intelligent man who, in spite of the laws at the time, learned to read and write.
In 1838, he escaped and eventually made his way to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he labored and was a lay preacher. Later, he became involved in the abolitionist movement, where he met William Lloyd Garrison, who took Douglass under his wing for a time.
As Douglass’s orator skills grew, so did his fame. However, Douglass and Garrison did not see eye to eye on the issue of slavery, and eventually the two parted ways.
Douglass founded his own abolitionist newspaper called “The North Star” and would go on to become the major force in the movement to abolish slavery in America — even going so far as to meet with and advise Abraham Lincoln and help recruit black soldiers for the Union army.
His earlier views were obviously denunciatory of slavery and the nation that hypocritically allowed it at its founding and promoted it with the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. However, Douglass did not ultimately accept Garrison’s doctrine that the U.S. Constitution was an inherently pro-slavery document...
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
He went from a bitter ex-slave to wanting blacks to be equals in America. He should be honoured.
He was never bitter. Read his July.4h, 1852 Address, he defends the Decleration and the Constitution as wonderful Freedom documents, and call the nation to live up to them.
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What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. [Applause.] The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us. Gen. Banks was distressed with solicitude as to what he should do with the Negro. Everybody has asked the question, and they learned to ask it early of the abolitionists, “What shall we do with the Negro?” I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature’s plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! If you see him on his way to school, let him alone, don’t disturb him! If you see him going to the dinner table at a hotel, let him go! If you see him going to the ballot- box, let him alone, don’t disturb him! [Applause.] If you see him going into a work-shop, just let him alone,–your interference is doing him a positive injury. Gen. Banks’ “preparation” is of a piece with this attempt to prop up the Negro. Let him fall if he cannot stand alone! If the Negro cannot live by the line of eternal justice, so beautifully pictured to you in the illustration used by Mr. Phillips, the fault will not be yours, it will be his who made the Negro, and established that line for his government. [Applause.] Let him live or die by that. If you will only untie his hands, and give him a chance, I think he will live. “
It is my understanding that he was bitter, until Lincoln challenged him to read the Constitution and Bill of Rights for himself and not just rely upon what he was told about it.
This was his speech in 1852.
In 1852, he delivered another of his more famous speeches, one that later came to be called “What to a slave is the 4th of July?”
In one section of the speech, Douglass noted, “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; 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, 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.”
That sounds bitter to me. But it changed when he was challenged by Lincoln to read the Constitution and Bill of Rights. When he did that, that’s when he advocated for America to be for all people.
No, in the same speech, he explains how the Decleration and the Constitution carry Freedom in them, he fervently praised the Founders, Garrison was a founder of today’s leftists.
Thank you for that. I thought he was bitter until Lincoln challenged him. I’m glad to be wrong.
Bear in mind the preface of the speech: “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?" Speaking the truth is not being bitter!
Slavery was a major issue during the founding of the country but was allowed to continue to pull the country together. If the founding fathers had insisted, there was a really good chance the country was never founded.
This may or may not be true but would have no bearing on the sentiment of a slave in regard to Independence Day. Nazism brought prosperity to most Germans - but not all. Did German Jews under Hitler celebrate Nazism? No, they rightly hated Nazism, which caused them unspeakable pain and loss.
I believe any fair minded person can understand why a slave in the U.S. would not appreciate the 4th of July. In other words, how can one celebrate the 'independence' of a nation in which he is a slave?
I have read the address! It's a fantastic oratory.(Notwithstanding my straightforward presentation) At this point its up to nearly 200,000 views. (FWIW, not my personal YouTube channel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NNBIMYGtLo
Douglass also eagerly debated the Constitution itself with many people, arguing that the Constitution is anti-slavery, and tore to pieces arguments we deal with today about the 3/5ths clause and many other aspects. (FWIW, this is my YouTube page)
The American Constitution and the Slave - Is the Constitution pro-slavery or anti-slavery?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbJ5WdKpMro
Many on the left try to claim Frederick Douglass as their own. In the details, there's not a shred of Douglass they could claim.
Let us not forget that Frederick Douglass was a Preacher. That's how he got so good at speaking. He did so every Sunday morning speaking about The Lord.
I thought that was a real possibility, because Georgia and South Carolina at least could have chosen an alliance with Spain and remained sovereign nations.
I guess my point was it points out the fallacy that people (not you) make insisting that the FF wanted slavery but compromises to leave it in place for the formation of the country. Less than 100 years later, slavery was banned well ahead of all modern countries of the time.
RE: "This may or may not be true..."
It is true. The short and short of it is that the colonies were trying to pass laws to slow and get rid of slavery, and the crown was "prostituting its negative" (To use Jefferson's phrase) -
Basically we passed the laws and Britain vetoed the laws. The U.S. was born a slave state because Britain forced us to be born a slave state. Here you can find both audio and the original sources/source texts for the law Virginia passed, the full text of the veto, and the full text of a resolution imploring the king, on humanitarian grounds no less. "Please let us do this and help the slaves" Britain flat out said no.
https://librivox.org/short-nonfiction-collection-vol-093-by-various/ (Look at entries 09, 10, 11)
"I believe any fair minded person can understand why a slave in the U.S. would not appreciate the 4th of July. In other words, how can one celebrate the 'independence' of a nation in which he is a slave?"
This is a fair question, and the answer is as short as 10 words:
When a colonial power forces them to be that way.
“I thought that was a real possibility, because Georgia and South Carolina at least could have chosen an alliance with Spain and remained sovereign nations.”
When the proposed U.S. Constitution was sent to the states for ratification, the document’s founders had already agreed only nine states were necessary to establish a new union. The previous union - the one styled “perpetual” - was defunct.
So yes, ratification by Georgia and South Carolina was not necessary.
Still, all thirteen states agreed to include slavery into the United States Constitution; not necessarily because all liked slavery, but because they all considered it to be in their own economic and political best self interest.
In England , the slavery abolition act of 1833 outlawed slavery in England and most of the British Empire.
“The U.S. was born a slave state because Britain forced us to be born a slave state.”
That is an interesting comment; one I’ve heard before but don’t fully understand.
Are you saying that the purchase of slaves by colonists in America was forced upon them by the British government?
Did the British government force the colonists to borrow money to buy the slaves?
If a colonist did not agree to buy slaves they did not want, did the British government punish the colonist in some way?
I had always thought the purchase of slaves was more along the lines of willing buyer/willing seller.
Frederick Douglas deserves all of the honor that we can bestow on his name and memory.
He is not a “Founder,” but his works deserve being honored as one!
I pray that the young black men and women will honor him by educating themselves and, truly, become equal American Citizens.
English and Education are, truly, the key to “Equal Opportunities.”
“In other words, how can one celebrate the ‘independence’ of a nation in which he is a slave?”
Consider Genesis 50:20, New Living Translation. Joseph tells his brothers - the ones that sold him into slavery years earlier:
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.”
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