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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmy Goodman: ‘What, to the American Slave, Is Your 4th of July?’
by Amy Goodman
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? asked Frederick Douglass of the crowd gathered at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, N.Y., on July 5, 1852. I answer, he continued, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which lie is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham.
Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 and became one of the most powerful and eloquent orators of the abolitionist movement. His Independence Day talk was organized by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. Douglass extolled the virtues of the Founding Fathers, those who signed the Declaration of Independence. Then he brought the focus to the present, to 1852. He said:
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 life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?
Of course, the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society had no intention of mocking him. Proceeds from their events were devoted primarily to supporting Douglass newspaper. They championed Douglass, and saw the need to take action, whatever action they could muster. The United States was, at the time of the speech, less than a decade away from a brutal civil war. The war would formally start with the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter, just off the coast of Charleston, S.C. .........................(more)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/what_to_the_american_slave_is_your_4th_of_july_20150701
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Amy Goodman: ‘What, to the American Slave, Is Your 4th of July?’ (Original Post)
marmar
Jul 2015
OP
To the America media and American war machine the 4th is now an annual opportunity to fearmonger.
Fred Sanders
Jul 2015
#3
malaise
(268,998 posts)1. One of the great speeches of all time with valid questions for today's America
Would be great if M$Greedia hosted a serious discussion on the key points but they are too busy looking for fireworks - literally and figuratively.
This is indeed still valid today. Wouldn't that discussion be a perfect way to pass the 4th? Alas, not going to happen.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)3. To the America media and American war machine the 4th is now an annual opportunity to fearmonger.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)4. K&R
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)5. Douglass instarec