What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?

“According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so.”

A critical aspect of Douglass’s arguments is that America is still in its childhood and is therefore still able to mature, change course, and cease the oppressive practice of slavery. Positioning America as a young country also helps Douglass’s audience see themselves as people who can shape the future of the nation, rather than simply a part of a static sociopolitical landscape. Finally, this metaphor allows the White audience to better cope with the guilt and shame of their complicity in upholding slavery, given that they are only children.

“Oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment.”

In much of the introductory passage of Douglass’s speech, he does not explicitly reference slavery. Instead, Douglass lays out key moral facets of his arguments that, ideally, his audience will agree with. This particular point is critical to Douglass’ thesis for abolishing slavery: it helps characterize why people who have experienced enslavement or are currently enslaved would become “restive” under oppressive treatment. Later, in a montaged section of Douglass’ speech, he illustrates this same point as he describes the harsh conditions that people experience when they are enslaved. 

“They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was ‘settled’ that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were ‘final’; not slavery and oppression.” 

In Douglass’s poetic description of the founders of the United States, he lays out what he hopes to be able to name as the future values of the country: “order; but not in the order of tyranny.” To Douglass, the very existence of slavery is in opposition to these values, yet ironically, he feels that his audience is not able to see that hypocrisy. Laying out the historical context for the American values of “justice, liberty and humanity” is an important precursor to Douglass’s later arguments.

“You live and must die, and you must do your work. You have no right to enjoy a child's share in the labor of your fathers, unless your children are to be blest by your labors. You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence.” 

In this passage, Douglass begins to more clearly turn the tone of his speech from gentle to firm. As he describes the “work” that must be done, Douglass starts to critique his audience, who are, in his words, wasting the work of their fathers and acting indolently. This decisive shift lays the groundwork for Douglass’s most famous passage; it is important to note here that the imagery of the labor of one’s fathers is also reminiscent of biblical language. In this way, Douglass also appeals to Christian religious values and American’s fealty to collective history.

“I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.-The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” 

In one of the most passionate moments of the speech, and preceding the titular question, Douglass presents his thesis. He contrasts the “high independence” of the White American audience with the “stripes and death” received by Black Americans who are enslaved. The antithetical parallelism present in this quote and similar parts of the passage is an important crux of this argument: Douglass crafts a narrative where it is clear that there are two American experiences with an “immeasurable distance” between them. Finally, in this quote, Douglass also references his earlier description of the distance between his life and the lives of the audience members.

“Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave.” 

Though Douglass explicitly names his point here, this is a crucial supporting thread that undergirds his remaining arguments. Much of his early language references his own humanity and learning; after this section, he moves into critiquing American government and religion for failing to acknowledge the humanity of enslaved Black people. As a result, this quote can be read as a purposeful rhetorical element: Douglass names the fact that the “slave is a man” in order to ensure that his audience is reminded of this humanity before laying out his subsequent criticisms of American society.

“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 denunciation 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. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.” 

In the most quoted section of the speech, Douglass states his famous question, which later would be adopted as the published titled of the speech. He presents this highly emotive passage only after laying out a number of calm, ethically-grounded arguments. It is on that foundation of rational narration and argument that Douglass speaks in an almost preacher-like style, naming a series of antithetical parallels that are “a thin veil to cover up” the crimes of the nation. At the end of the paragraph, Douglass reminds the audience that these atrocities are not a thing of the past but are occurring “at this very hour,” an important shift from his gentler introductory reminders about America’s childhood. 

“Is this the land your Fathers loved, The freedom which they toiled to win? Is this the earth whereon they moved? Are these the graves they slumber in?” 

In this quote, Douglass repeats the words of John Greenleaf Whittier, who published these lines in an anti-slavery poem in 1835. Whittier, a Quaker and abolitionist, was White; through this citation Douglass builds his argument and establishes his emotional tone without relying solely on his own perspective. For his audience, some of whom would have likely been White women who were somewhat open to the prospect of abolition, Douglass’s use of Whitter’s words would have been an important reference.

“Not fewer than forty Americans have, within the past two years, been hunted down and, without a moment's warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. The right of the hunter to his prey stands superior to the right of marriage, and to all rights in this republic, the rights of God included! For black men there is neither law nor justice, humanity nor religion. The Fugitive Slave Law makes mercy to them a crime; and bribes the judge who tries them.” 

Although he does not focus on the Fugitive Slave Law for the majority of the speech, this aspect of Douglass’s argument is one of the more specific purposes of the text. Not only is slavery wrong, Douglass argues, but having this particular law in place allows people who are legally free, even under the laws of slavery, to be enslaved. Douglass decries the horror of this law in order to push his audience to take a political stance against this particular, newer aspect of the economic system of slavery in the U.S.

“But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters.” 

Critiquing the Christian church system is an important aspect of Douglass’s larger argument; throughout the speech Douglass highlights the ways that the stated values of American society are hypocritical when juxtaposed with the existence of slavery. In making this point, Douglass forces his audience to look more closely at the ways that Christianity is used as a tool of oppression. He elaborates further that the church twists the meaning of the Bible to be the “bulwark of American slavery.” In this way, Douglass exposes the dark underpinnings of American society, especially as they are supported by popular institutions like the church.

“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 oppression in your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot, and kill.” 

In another important description of the hypocrisy of American society, Douglass points out the sharp contrast between American treatment of foreign refugees with the treatment of enslaved people. Critically, the language in this passage points back to Douglass’s arguments against the Fugitive Slave Law, which seeks to punish, re-enslave, or kill “fugitives from oppression.” This kind of juxtaposition is also rhetorically important for Douglass because it references the morally good side of his audience while challenging them to understand their own hypocrisies. 

“And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, they were the veriest impostors that ever practised on mankind. This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape; but I differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States.” 

In an about-face from his earlier descriptions of the forefathers, Douglas finally reveals his true opinions, describing them as “imposters,” though he carefully keeps this critique separate from dismissing the Constitution. This reflects an important tension in Douglass’s career that eventually led him to split from some other key figures in the abolitionist movement who believed that the Constitution supported slavery and should be dismissed. This quote is also important for Douglass’s naming of the “inevitable conclusion,” which he hopes his audience will also reach.

“Fellow-citizens! there is no matter in respect to which the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but interpreted, as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a glorious liberty document. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gate way? or is it in the temple? it is neither.” 

Douglass expands on his points about the validity of the U.S. Constitution, which he believes is a “glorious liberty document” that does not support the institution of slavery. By embracing the Constitution, Douglass would have likely appealed to members of his audience who would like to be seen as morally sound and judicious. Though Douglass does not expound upon this subject at length, this is an important reference as he moves towards his conclusion.