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Analysis of frederick douglass what to the slave is the 4th of july
The narrative of fredrick douglass
The narrative of fredrick douglass
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The speech I read was 'The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro', by Frederick Douglas. In the 4th July, being Independence Day, people celebrate it for their liberty, independence and separation from Great Britain. But all these joy applied only to those who were not under the burden of slavery, not to the slaves and Frederick Douglass, who was once a slave: “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me” (Douglas, 1852). In this speech, Douglas reproved those that endorsed slavery and stated that it was not his plan to argue slavery since people were well aware that man is entitled to freedom, that slaves are men, that they are moral, intellectual and responsible
What is freedom? This question is easy enough to answer today. To many, the concept of freedom we have now is a quality of life free from the constraints of a person or a government. In America today, the thought of living a life in which one was “owned” by another person, seems incomprehensible. Until 1865 however, freedom was a concept that many African Americans only dreamed of. Throughout early American Literature freedom and the desire to be free has been written and spoken about by many. Insight into how an African-American slave views freedom and what sparks their desire to receive it can be found in any of the “Slave Narratives” of early American literature, from Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustav Vassa, the African published in 1789, to Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself which was published in 1845. Phillis Wheatley’s poetry and letters and Martin R. Delany’s speech Political Destiny of the Colored Race in the American Continent also contain examples of the African-American slaves’ concepts of freedom; all the similarities and differences among them.
In the speech, “what to the slave is the Fourth of July?” which Fredrick Douglass gave he emphasized how the fourth of July is not a celebration to the slaves but an insult and ridicule. Douglass uses logos and pathos to make the audience understand his point of view and how this so called “independence day’’ is for whites only because the black people in America are still slaves , which in turn means they can’t celebrate this day. Using these rhetoric’s he conveys his point on how this day is adds insult to injury.
In that very speech, Douglass made it clear that, like countless African Americans during this time period, he did not feel like he could join White Americans in the celebration of the 4th of July. Douglass had a primary objective of calling to question the validity of celebrating the 4th of July while there were many injustices still in practice. He aimed to make it clear to the audience that, it was a mockery to expect or even invite African Americans to partake in the celebration of the 4th of July because it was not theirs to celebrate. His objective shaped his speech dramatically. It allowed him to bring up the history behind the 4th of July and call to question why the ideologies that brought out the Nation’s liberation were not being used to liberate the slaves.
Frederick Douglass’s speech was given to so many of his own people. The fact that Douglass speaks so harshly to them proves that he has passion for what he talks about through-out. “What to the slave is the Fourth of July”, compares and contrasts the different meanings the Fourth of July shared between Whites and African Americans. Douglass says “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”. Frederick Douglass was not striving for the attention, he just wanted to get across that the Fourth of July is not a day of celebration to African Americans and the respect he shared with them, having once being a slave himself.
It was a remarkable articulation of the Black people voice living in the United States of America at that point of time because Black people were going through too much humiliation on physical and moral levels (Andrews, 1991, p.46). In order to get to the gist of the speech and reveal the emotional resonance it creates, a historical background timeline needs to be sketched. The period of the 1850s in the USA was especially tough for slaves due to several significant events that happened within this period of time. First of all, there was the Nashville Convention held on June 3, 1850, the goal of which was to protect the rights of slaveholders and extend the dividing line northwards. September 18 of the same year brought the Fugitive Slave Act, according to which the slave who managed to escape from his owner to the free state was to be caught and later returned back with all the consequences to follow.... ...
Frederick Douglass's "Fourth of July" Speech is the most famous speech delivered by the abolitionist and civil rights advocate Frederick Douglass. It attracted a crowd of between five hundred and six hundred. Douglass’s speech to the slaves on the Fourth of July served to show the slaves that there is nothing for them to celebrate. They were not free and the independence that the rest of the country celebrated did not apply to them.
The effectiveness and excellent structure of Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July speech is apparent. His rhetorical arguments served as powerful rebuts to opposing contentions and forced his audience to consider the undeniable error in their nation’s policy and approach regarding slavery. Douglass also compelled his audience to take his words seriously by establishing his credibility, recognizing his audience, and skillfully constructing and executing his speech. The end product of his efforts became a provocative speech at the time and a historical delivery in the future. Douglass succeeded in giving a speech that clearly and effectively argued the absurdity of the institution of slavery in America, leaving it up to his audience to consider his position and decide for themselves how to act in the future.
The story “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde demonstrates that she comes across a realization that she had to speak up for her rights and independence when she visited the capital city of the United States, Washington, D.C. Lorde explains how she was frustrated with the situation that occurred in Washington, D.C., which shows that she had learned the reality of the society. She writes about many things that she came across during the trip to Washington D.C. in the summer vacation. In the essay, the meanings of independence for Lorde are to fight for it and to speak up for the rights that they deserve. Lorde and her family visit many places in the capital city where they were told to leave the place because black people were not allowed there.
In the short story “The Fourth of July” written by Audre Lorde conveys the message that one should not contradict the majority of people and if they do as result their will be certain consequences, and that you have to wait it out in order to be somewhat rewarded specifically in the story, The story is roughly about the racism within the United States’ capital and other parts of the U.S., and how her family experienced these horrid practices on their fourth of July vacation. The copious use of the term white within the short story clearly conveys the fact that there is a strong amount of racism present in the story, as well as the fact that the fourth of July was only a "white man's celebration” The use of white to describe Washington D.C. represents Lorde's anger at how our nation's capital should be symbol of freedom for all american citizens and however the country is
1.) Fredrick Douglass’s purpose in this speech was to explain the wrongfulness of slavery in America. Fredrick Douglass states in his speech “Are the great principles of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” and “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me.” These prove that the freedom and independence Americans have aren’t shared with the Africans when it should be that Africans have those rights as well. Frederick Douglass then talked about how badly whites treat blacks and how wrong it is. “There are 72 crimes in Virginia which, if committed by a black man, subject him to a punishment of death, while
In Audre Lorde’s bildungsroman essay “The Fourth of July” (1997), she recalls her family’s trip to the nation’s capital that represented the end of her childhood ignorance by being exposed to the harsh reality of racialization in the mid 1900s. Lorde explains that her parents are to blame for shaping her skewed perception of America by shamefully dismissing frequent acts of racism. Utilizing copious examples of her family being negatively affected by racism, Lorde expresses her anger towards her parents’ refusal to address the blatant, humiliating acts of discrimination in order to emphasize her confusion as to why objecting to racism is a taboo. Lorde’s use of a transformational tone of excitement to anger, and dramatic irony allows those
Frederick Douglass’ was an African American man that was catered to the abolitionist movement after growing up as a slave. When he was just twelve years old, his slaveholder’s wife and other white children in the neighborhood taught him the alphabet. Douglass’ was one of the most intellectual of his time because of his distinct ability to read and write even though others of his kind could not. His speech titled as What to the Slave is the Fourth of July questioned the everyday practices of the American people. Some of which would be the enslaving of the black ethnicity, the hypocrisy of the United States government, as well as the wrong teaching of the Declaration of Independence. Thirty years before Douglass’ death, the actions of slavery
In both “The Fourth of July” and “Black Men and Public Space” the narrators did one very important thing; they expressed how the encounter made the narrator feel. This is crucial because it almost allows the reader to share the feeling of helplessness that was felt. In “The Fourth of July”, Lorde explained how she truly did not understand why the family was treated differently. She tells of her parents’ fruitless effort to shield their children from the harsh realities of Jim Crow by planning out virtually the whole trip. The highlight of the story is when the narrator expresses both anger and confusion at the fact that her family was denied seated service at an ice cream parlor because they were black.
His main argument in the speech is that it 's unjust and hypocritical for a country to celebrate its freedom while it still has slaves. Now that in itself is a morally viable argument, and it has never been more relevant than today in our racially hate fueled world where every situation is turned into a hate crime. However, back in those days majority of slaves were sold into slavery by their own people. Most slaves were sold by rival tribes as prisoners of war, or trouble makers of the tribe, thus giving us the “bottom of the barrel” of the groups. Another counter to Douglass was that even though slaves were people, they were still considered property. A hard working farmer could have used his last penny in order to purchase that slave because he was unable to tend his farm and provide for his family. One common misconception was that all slaves were beaten and treated lower than swine, while to the contrary some were treated well being given a bed and meals every day in exchange for their hard work. While Douglass may have had a bad time under the ownership of Auld, most northern states did not treat their slaves in this manner. This is one of the main reasons Douglass learned how to read, yet no credit is given to his former owner. Most slaves developed a relationship with their owners, in which their owners taught them useful skills such as reading, writing, simple math and farming skills. Another argument brought into Douglass’ speech was that most churches were segregated, and in turn perpetuated the racism that helped keep slavery alive in well. He proposed that a God that wouldn’t allow such evil and disservice in this world would contradict everything the bible proposes and teaches. He praises the writers of the constitution, considering them his equal and thanking the signers of the Declaration of Independence, calling
It 's a nice day in July, the third, the day before all of the excitement. Families are out and about standing in lines wrapped around the store buying kerosene for their grills. Of course you can’t forget the Hotdogs, hamburgers, buns, jello, cake, icecream and popsicles. Any kind of food you could ever want and most in the color red white or blue. People are flocking to the firework stands to buy as many of the biggest and baddest fire works they have to offer. Kids spending there allowance on rockets, snakes, poppers, parachutes, and smoke bombs. Fourth of July is almost in full swing just a few more things before the big party. While all of these people are running around like ants in a frenzy swarming to the melted ice cream cone on the hot pavement. My aunt, uncle, and cousins are at their house preparing for the big party an annual fourth of july