[ArcLight]

At the risk of offending some here, I must post one of the great July 4 orations in US history. This bold, radical speech should be taught in every school in the land.

[Calpernia]

I too am from a slave family. I'm not of the founding fathers. I celebrate the 4th of July. What other land would we find these freedoms?

[plain talk]

Thanks for the post. What I like about this is the sense of proportion stated. That, yes, great injustices like slavery, were a stain on our country's history but that, when all is said and done, only a great country founded on solid principles could overcome these injustices, correct them and move on. (Well, at least, some of us have moved on.)

[Knightsofswing]

My family [mother's side] came here as indentured servants [slavery by another name]from Ireland [sorry about the spelling]. But by the Lord God Almighty I am am an American[native born too]

[headsonpikes]

Bravo!

A moving speech, indeed.

[Wonder Warthog]

"At the risk of offending some here, I must post one of the great July 4 orations in US history. This bold, radical speech should be taught in every school in the land."

Whatever for?? What did Douglass have to say on any July 4th AFTER the Civil War??

[MoJo2001]

My family has never been enslaved. That's why I find it most offensive for certain segments of the minority population pushing for slave reparations.

Our country will heal the racial divide when racial profiteering has ended.

I celebrate the Fourth Of July because I'm an American and damn proud not be a member of any other country. That's it. It doesn't matter what color skin you have or don't have. If you are proud of America, you will honor her no matter what. That's the essence of America.

[William McKinley]

Our founding fathers were not all sweetness and light with their speeches either. This is an outstanding speech, which I am adding to my bookmarks.

Happy 4th- and may the sins of the past be overcome for all Americans.

[satan]

Do the descendants of those who returned to Africa to found Liberia wish they could celebrate the 4th of July?

[SamAdams76]

Don't see how you could offend anybody with that. A great speech by a great man. Taken in the context of the times (1852) in which it was given, the speech rings true. Black Americans had little to celebrate on July 4, 1852. And the United States was already splitting apart over the issue. At that time, we were only two years away from the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise), which set events in motion that ultimately led to the Civil War of 1861-1865 - the bloodiest war in American history.

Today, slavery is a distant memory and racism is on its way to being one (if only the liberals would quit trying to keep it alive). Black Americans are at last on more or less equal footing with their white counterparts. While we can't go back in time and set things right with what was done with their ancestors, I would think that black Americans are for the most part thankful that their ancestors were brought over here to the United States instead of being left in Africa, which even today is a third-world cesspool for the most part.

[rdf]

Thanks, great post

Richard F.

[Arkinsaw]

At the risk of offending some here,

People speaking about liberty should never be offensive to anyone who loves it.

[Maria S]

An excellent book that I would recommend to anyone who is not familiar with all of the myths surrounding slavery, and a review from http://www.thbookservice.com/BookPage.asp?prod_cd=c6186:

Myths of American Slavery by Kennedy, Walter D.

While modern Americans are unanimous in their condemnation of slavery as cruel, unjust, and contrary to our nation's basic creed of individual freedom, it must be acknowledged that, until about 150 years ago, upstanding citizens legally bought and sold other human beings in the United States. This appalling contradiction has inspired a host of incorrect and unjust myths about slavery that have, over time, been widely accepted as fact -- and which are exploited by liberals to advance their agenda. Armed with plentiful historical data, Walter D. Kennedy reveals the truth behind these myths, including:

MYTH: Slavery was an institution operated by white people for the oppression of black people
MYTH: Slavery was a system organized by Christians
MYTH: In America, slavery was uniquely Southern
MYTH: Slavery was a self-evident sin, and so recognized by the Christian Church
MYTH: Slavery was uncommon and very short-lived in the North, and had little economic impact there
MYTH: The North ended slavery because it was offensive to the moral character of Northerners
MYTH: The North offered the black man equality and brotherhood
MYTH: Black slaveholders only owned slaves who were related to them in order to free them from slavery to whites
MYTH: Secession was just a scheme by Southern slaveholders to protect their slave property
MYTH: Lincoln freed the slaves, and was an advocate of racial equality
MYTH: Racial discrimination and/or segregation is a legacy of Southern slavery
MYTH: The lives of modern African-Americans have been irreparably damaged by slavery, and therefore government-backed entitlements and reparations are owed to them

Make no mistake: Myths of American Slavery is not a defense of slavery, but instead a sincere attempt to defeat the spread of misrepresentations that continue to bedevil race relations and contaminate America's political landscape.

[sarasmom]

It is not offensive, outdated, but not offensive.
I actively celebrate the 4th of July, as did my maternal grandmother.
I can not speak for my great grandmother, or her great grandmother, but I doubt they celebrated overmuch.
You see, they were the indigenous people that were conquered, murdered and displaced by the ancestors of those brave men who declared indepence from England.
I celebrate the 4th of July.
I like to think that somewhere, somehow,Frederick Douglas, Martin L. King, and my great, great, great, great grandmother now celebrate the 4th of July with George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Mark Twain and Albert Einstein.
God bless the USA!

[GatekeeperBookman]

That Frederic Douglas fellow sounds dangerous-someone should watch him...

[nutmeg]

bump

[StriperSniper]

I had seen quotes from this before, but had never read the whole thing.

Good, timely post, thanks.

[alfa6]

Marking Bump

Regards

alfa6 ;>]

[100%FEDUP]

Do they still teach kids that Crispus Attucks was one of the first PATRIOTS killed at the start of the Revolution?

[TheDon]

Thanks for the post. You can't go wrong with a F. Douglass post.

[billbears]

This bold, radical speech should be taught in every school in the land

So should this. Looks like Mr. Douglass opinion changed a bit from 1852

Whatever may be the folly and absurdity of the North, the South at least is true and wise. The Southern papers no longer indulge in the vulgar expression, "free n----rs." That class of bipeds are now called "colored residents." The Charleston papers say:

"The colored residents of this city can challenge comparison with their class, in any city or town, in loyalty or devotion to the cause of the South. Many of them individually, and without ostentation, have been contributing liberally, and on Wednesday evening, the 7th inst., a very large meeting was held by them, and a committee appointed to provide for more efficient aid. The proceedings of the meeting will appear in results hereinafter to be reported."

It is now pretty well established, that there are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do all that soldiers may to destroy the Federal Government and build up that of the traitors and rebels. There were such soldiers at Manassas, and they are probably there still. There is a Negro in the army as well as in the fence, and our Government is likely to find it out before the war comes to an end. That the Negroes are numerous in the rebel army, and do for that army its heaviest work, is beyond question. They have been the chief laborers upon those temporary defences in which the rebels have been able to mow down our men. Negroes helped to build the batteries at Charleston. They relieve their gentlemanly and military masters from the stiffening drudgery of the camp, and devote them to the nimble and dexterous use of arms. Rising above vulgar prejudice, the slaveholding rebel accepts the aid of the black man as readily as that of any other. If a bad cause can do this, why should a good cause be less wisely conducted? We insist upon it, that one black regiment in such a war as this is, without being any more brave and orderly, would be worth to the Government more than two of any other; and that, while the Government continues to refuse the aid of colored men, thus alienating them from the national cause, and giving the rebels the advantage of them, it will not deserve better fortunes than it has thus far experienced.--Men in earnest don't fight with one hand, when they might fight with two, and a man drowning would not refuse to be saved even by a colored hand. ---FIGHTING REBELS WITH ONLY ONE HAND (Douglass' Monthly, September 1861)