Famous Speeches: Frederick

Douglass' "The Hypocrisy of American

Slavery"
By Adapted by Newsela staff on 03.29.16
Word Count 1,519
Level 790L

Portrait of Frederick Douglass from his book, "My Bondage and My Freedom," published in 1856. Image by: New York Public
Library

Editor's Note: Frederick Douglass was born in Maryland in 1818, the son of a
slave woman and her white master. He became famous after writing his
autobiography in 1845, where he described his escape from slavery. In 1852, he
was invited to speak at a July Fourth ceremony in Rochester, New York. The
audience was expecting a speech praising America's independence. Instead,
Douglass harshly criticized the United States for its support of slavery.

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Fellow citizens, pardon me. I need to ask, why have I been invited to speak here
today? What do I or other black people have to do with your national
independence? Are we given freedom and justice in the Declaration of
Independence? And am I supposed to tell you what benefits we have gained from
your independence and express our gratitude for it?

I wish to God, both for your sake and ours, that the answer was yes. Then my job
would be easier and more pleasant. Who is so cold that a nation's sympathy could
not warm him? Who is so stubborn and dead that he would not accept such
priceless gifts? Who is so boring and selfish that he would not celebrate a nation's
anniversary, after he has been freed from slavery? I am not that man. No sooner
would I do that, than a voiceless man might talk, or a hurt man might leap like a
deer.

But that is not the case. I say with sadness that we are separated by a wide gap. I
am not included in this glorious anniversary! Your independence only shows the
extreme distance between us. The blessings that you enjoy are not enjoyed by
everyone. Your fathers left you a rich inheritance of justice, liberty, wealth, and
independence. It is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and
healing to you has brought lashes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours,
not mine. You may rejoice, but I must mourn. To drag a man in chains into the
temple of liberty, and ask him to celebrate with you, is inhuman. Do you mean,
citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? If so, you are reenacting
history. Let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of the people of
Babylon who built too close to heaven and were punished.

Fellow citizens, above your national joy, I hear the mournful wails of millions.
Their chains were heavy and terrible yesterday. Today, they have become even
more unbearable. 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 stick
to the roof of my mouth!"

We must not forget the slaves and ignore what they have suffered. I would be
accused before God and the world of treason.

My subject, then, fellow citizens, is "American Slavery." I speak about it from the
slave's point of view. I stand here with the American slave. I declare, with all my
soul, that the character and behavior of this nation never looked blacker to me
than on this Fourth of July.

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Whether we turn to the past or to the present, the behavior of the nation seems
equally hideous and terrible. America lies about its past, lies about its present,
and is committed to lying about the future. I stand with God and the crushed and
bleeding slave. I stand here in the name of humanity, which is insulted; in the
name of liberty, which is chained; in the name of the Constitution and the Bible.
They are ignored and stepped on. I question and condemn everything that
upholds slavery, the great sin and shame of America! "I will not conceal the truth.
I will not excuse." I will use the harshest language I know. Yet I will not speak one
word that any man, whose is not prejudiced or a slave-holder, will not say is true.

But I think I hear some of my audience say that you and other Abolitionists do not
make a good impression on people. If you argued more and criticized less, you
would persuade more people, they say. Your cause would be much more likely to
succeed. But, I say, what is the point of the anti-slavery creed you want me to
argue? What do the people of this country need more information about? Must I
have to prove that the slave is a man? That idea is accepted already, and nobody
doubts it. The slave-holders themselves admit it by their laws and admit it when
they punish disobedience by the slave. There are 72 crimes in the State of
Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, are punished by death. For white
people, only two of them are punished by death

These laws recognize that the slave is a moral, intelligent, and responsible human
being. Southern law books set terrible punishments for anyone who teaches
slaves to read and write. Point to any similar laws about animals. If you can find
any, then I may agree to argue that a slave is a person.

For the present, it is enough to say that the Negro race is equal. We plow, plant,
and reap. We use all kinds of mechanical tools. We erect houses, construct
bridges, build ships, work in brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold. We read, write,
and do mathematics. We work as clerks, merchants, and secretaries. We have
among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, and teachers. We do
all the activities that other men do. We dig gold in California, capture the whale in
the Pacific, feed sheep and cattle on the hillside, live, move, act, think, plan, live
in families as husbands, wives, and children. And above all, we worship the
Christian God, and look hopefully for life in heaven after death. Still, we must
prove that we are men?

Do you want me to argue that man must be free? 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 Americans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic

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and debate? Is it so hard to understand? How should I argue in front of Americans
that men have a natural right to freedom? To do so would be to make myself
ridiculous, and to insult your intelligence. There is not a man under heaven who
does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What! Am I to argue that it is wrong to make men animals, to rob them of their
liberty, to make them work without pay? Is it wrong to keep them ignorant, to
beat them with sticks, to whip them, to put them in chains? Is it wrong to hunt
them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to split apart their families, to knock out
their teeth, to starve them into obedience to their masters? Must I argue that a
system marked with blood is wrong? No, I will not. I have better use of my time
and strength.

What, then, is left to be argued? Is it that God did not create slavery? Who can
make sense of such a statement? I cannot. The time for such argument is past.

At a time like this, anger, not argument, is needed. Oh, had I the ability, and could
I make the nation listen to me, I would today pour out a fiery stream of anger. For
it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle showers, but thunder. We
need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must
be stirred up; the conscience of the nation must be woken up; the good manners
of the nation must be shocked. Its crimes against God and man must be shouted
down.

What does the Fourth of July mean to the American slave? I will answer that. It is
a day that shows to him more than all other days of the year, the terrible injustice
and cruelty to which he is the victim. To him your celebration is fake. You boast
about your freedoms but they are not holy. The greatness of your nation is just
arrogance. Your celebrations are empty and heartless. Your shouts of liberty and
equality are empty. Your prayers and hymns of thanks are meaningless. To the
slave, they are a fraud and a lie. They are a thin veil to cover up crimes which
would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth who has
done more shocking and bloody things than the United States at this very hour.

Go search wherever you want. Roam through all the kingdoms of the world. Visit
the cruel countries of the Old World, travel through South America. When you
have found every example of cruel and violent treatment, compare them to this
nation. Then you will say with me that, for inhumanity and falseness, America has
no rival.

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