The Liberator, September 26, 1845 The film suggests that Douglass facility with words was just as important as his physical courage in taking on the institution of slavery. The accepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now. Douglass Monthly, May 1861 I lived on Philpot Street, Fells Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves, the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. It is a slander upon their memory, at least, so I believe. When Douglass delivered his famous The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, he was issuing a scathing indictment of American hypocrisy, Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy reminded readers. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. Valedictory People from virtually every country in the world wanted to come to the nation that Americans struggled for decades and decades to create, as imperfect as it remains, he wrote. An Address White spectators openly gushed about Douglass muscular, yet lithe and graceful 6-foot, 200-pound frame, his full and rich baritone, and compared him to an African prince.. Appendix: The Heroic Slave (1853), Phone orders: 1-800-964-5778 When black troops protested they were not receiving pay and treatment equal to that of white troops. But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? Most noteable is a transcription of Frederick Douglass' speech given at the 2nd Annual The first autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Read the full text below of the sage words from one of the greatest orators of all time. The manhood of the slave is conceded. You live and must die, and you must do your work. Use this downloadable discussion guide as a starting point for further reflection and activism. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by our DOCTORS OF DIVINITY. The glue holding together this Composite Nation would be the principle of absolute equality, he said, no matter ones race, ethnicity or religious beliefs. In the language of Isaiah, the American church might be well addressed, Bring no more vain ablations; incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. Why Should a Colored Man Enlist? The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. You may well cherish the memory of such men. People wept as he recounted the horrors of slavery or erupted in laughter as he mimicked his former slave master. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much You will see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. That he is the rightful owner of his own body? That belief was so ingrained that a politician like Garrett Davis, a Democratic senator from Kentucky, could openly say: I want no Negro government; I want no Mongolian government; I want the government of the White man which our fathers incorporated.. A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. What Abraham Lincoln said in respect of the United States is as true of the colored people as of the relations of those States. Africa is too far off, even if we desired to go there, which we do not. here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems unfashionable in our day. The subject has been handled with masterly power by Lysander Spooner, Esq., by William Goodell, by Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., and last, though not least, by Gerritt Smith, Esq. Most noteable is a transcription of Frederick Douglass' speech given at the 2nd Annual N.C. Negro State Fair. The Big Speech: November 19, 2010: Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking: December 12, 2010: Correspondence, scrapbooks of clippings, print material such as articles and reports, and other papers, all dating from the Civil War into the first few decades of the 20th century. Mark them! Cling to this day cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. Men of Color, To Arms! The Inaugural Address It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. They inhabit all our Southern States. Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. will be found by Americans. Request product #203747, ISBN: 978-1-59853-722-2 Slavery, Freedom, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act: An Address My business, if I have any here today, is with the present. As a special feature the volume also presents Douglasss only foray into fiction, the 1853 novella The Heroic Slave, about Madison Washington, leader of the real-life insurrection on board the domestic slave-trading ship Creole in 1841 that resulted in the liberation of more than a hundred enslaved people. to place your order. But I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. On top of his federal work, Douglass kept a vigorous speaking tour schedule. How to End the War The Mission of the War: An Address The Scrapbooks Series is made up of seventeen scrapbooks assembled by Hunter which contain clippings and other items concerning race relations and other social, political, and economic affairs pertaining to African Americans. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. Your President, your Secretary of State, ourlords,nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God. In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: Th oppressd shall vilely bend the knee. Primary Source Material from 18th & 19th Century Publications, In a final celebratory post for Black History Month 2023, it is worth returning to the 1883 Douglass Banquet. The Color Line 2023 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved. How did Frederick Douglass become involved in the abolitionist movement? New York, New York, February 6, 1863 Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock. As the Civil War progressed and emancipation seemed imminent, Douglass intensified the fight for equal citizenship. The New National Era, April 6, 1871 It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. "Man is man, the world over," he said. Man is man, the world over, Douglass said in his speech. Prejudice against Color Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? It was a startling idea, much more so, than we, at this distance of time, regard it. Douglass addresses the American Anti-Slavery Society on his return from the British Isles which he found to be more accepting and equitable than his own country. But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of. There are also numerous drafts and copies of outgoing correspondence that Hunter wrote. We have put together a list of the following speeches that have opened the minds of the American There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. Give Us the Freedom Intended for Us Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Groups that include people with different backgrounds and cultures consistently come up with more innovative solutions to problems because theyre not confined to one perspective, research says. This Decision Has Humbled the Nation: An Address From police shootings to the wage gap to crippling stereotypes (and everything in between), there are too many parallels today with what Douglass described in his speech to white America, including this relevant line. Frederick Douglass, born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, (1818-1895) was an African American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. Edited by John R. McKivigan, Julie Husband and Heather L. Kaufman. Many contemporary Americans seem pessimistic about the prospect of building a modern-day Composite Nation a multiracial, multiethnic and multireligious democracy that reflects the changing demographics of the country. On Robert Burns and Scotland: An Address 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. Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout We have Washington toour father. Alas! The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority ofHimby whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teachthat we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially prosperous just now. In several states, this trade is a chief source of wealth. The Dred Scott Decision: An Address Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? ; Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Ida B. You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. American County Histories: A Unique Research Resource, Part VII: Abraham Lincoln Library Abolitionist Books, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin with his Essays and Will, Book Directory: Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, The Value of Primary Sources Webinar Slide Deck, The Active Role of Women in the Temperance Movement, When Newspapers Began the Shift to Mass Media, The Civil War and the Formation of the Modern Newspaper, Friendly Guide for Librarians to COP 5 [PDF], Webinar Video: Quantitative Reporting on Digital Collections. The Nebraska ControversyThe True Issue But Douglass Composite Nation speech was filled with an audacious hope that belied the pervasive prejudice of his era. Frederick Douglass Paper, February 24, 1854 Read its preamble, consider its purposes. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. American Prejudice and Southern Religion: An Address Frederick Douglass published three autobiographies. As to extinction, the prospect in that direction has been greatly clouded by the census just taken, in which it is seen that our increase is ten per cent. They were great men too great enough to give fame to a great age. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. The Late Election welcome atheism! To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. The testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. 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