by Heather Hedlund

The Fourth of July, Independence Day, is a day of celebration for the United States. In 1776, Congress made this bold statement in the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." But those who aren't experiencing these freedoms have a hard time celebrating. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered an address to an audience of abolitionists in honor of Independence Day. His address, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" has become famous as an anti-slavery oration, but to his audience that day, it was probably challenging to hear.

First, a little background on Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery in Maryland around 1817 or 1818, Douglass was separated from his mother soon after birth. She was sent to work twelve miles away and was able to see him only infrequently. At age 7, Frederick was sent to Baltimore, where the wife of his new owner began to teach him to read. Though she was quickly forbidden to continue, Frederick had learned the power of literacy and sought out poor white children in his neighborhood to teach him when he went out on errands. At age 20, he attended a camp meeting and became a Christian. Not long after, he escaped to freedom. Within a few years, he began speaking tours with the Massachusetts Antislavery Society and became a recognized orator. After publishing his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he fled to Great Britain to avoid capture. While in Britain, new friends raised funds to purchase his freedom. On his return to the US, he began publishing the newspaper, The North Star, and continued to advocate for the abolition of slavery.

Frederick Douglass
approximately 1856

As Douglass steps to the podium on July 5, 1852, he begins by recognizing his audience's cause for celebration: "This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day."

He reminds them why the founders made their bold declaration: "But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to."

He affirms the founding principles: "Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation's destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost… Cling to this day — cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight." So far, he is delivering the patriotic address his audience has been expecting, but he's about to make things uncomfortable.

Douglass asks the question: "Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?"  
He continues, "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 life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn."

After describing the gross injustices of slavery, he reaches a damning crescendo: "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 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. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour."

As he goes on to decry the Fugitive Slave Law, he offers this indictment of the Christian church of his day, "The fact that the church of our country, (with fractional exceptions), does not esteem "the Fugitive Slave Law" as a declaration of war against religious liberty, implies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. 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. The Bible addresses all such persons as 'scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.' 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. Many of its most eloquent Divines, who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity."

He goes beyond the Fugitive Slave Law to condemn the church for propping up the whole system of slavery, "The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with what it is doing to uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in connection with its ability to abolish slavery. The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of commission. Albert Barnes but uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of the actual state of the case will receive as truth, when he declared that 'There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.'"

Despite these strong words, Douglass closes with optimism: "Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age." He closes by quoting a poem by William Lloyd Garrison, which begins,

"God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more."

Douglass's hope was realized when the Civil War brought an end to the institution of slavery. This nation has made much progress since then, but much injustice remains. When those who are experiencing this injustice express lament rather than celebration on the Fourth of July, will the rest of us become defensive, or will we hear their cry? Will we tune them out, or will we listen to understand? Will we "rejoice with those who rejoice" and "mourn with those who mourn" (Romans 12:15)? We can celebrate the great principles on which our nation was founded, while also recognizing where we are falling short and seeking to live up to our ideals.

Learn more about Frederick Douglass

• What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
  Read the entire text of Frederick Douglass's powerful speech.
• Descendants Read Frederick Douglass's speech (7 minutes)
  In this video, five descendants of Frederick Douglass read and respond to excerpts of the famous speech.
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
  Read his classic 1845 memoir and treatise on abolition.
• Frederick Douglass for Kids: His Life and Times with 21 Activities by Nancy I. Sanders
  Introduce younger kids (elementary and middle school) to Douglass with this biography, also available for checkout from the King County Library System.