The Meaning Of July Fourth For The Negro Essay

“The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” is a speech, which Frederick Douglass presented on July 5th, 1862 in Rochester, New York. As many may know, at the time of this speech African-Americans were not free from the clutches of slavery and were not treated as American citizens. Douglass informs over 600 listeners of the racial oppression African-Americans faced, religion and the church’s relation to slavery, and the U.S. Constitution. Douglass appears to give off a tone that is welcoming. The primary source states that “Douglass spoke with a natural grace, but one that resulted from long practice. He used every tool in the speaker’s repertoire: wit, humor, pathos, ridicule, satire, mimicry, and intellectual and emotional appeals (145).” He starts off by calling the Fourth of July an American “Passover (146)” and it is America’s destiny to have independence; but his “admiration” of American society quickly changes when he states “This fourth [of] July is yours, not mine.
Douglass stated that freedom bound people in America “Worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences (162.)” Meaning that slave-masters used the word of God to justify slavery because it was right in the conscious of the slave-master. Douglass also believed that the Christian religion was not used as a “vital life principle (162,)” but as a form of worship. He explained that because it wasn’t used as a principle, “active benevolence, justice, love, and good toward man (162)” were not projected unto specific people (black people). In Douglass’s eyes, the church is partially responsible for slavery because “they have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the religion of master and slave is ordained of God (162);” According to Douglass, although the U.S. Constitution is a liberty document, it still imposed