Frederick Douglas's Declaration Of Independence

In his speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, Frederick Douglass passionately argues that to the slave, and even to the freed African American, the Fourth of July is no more than a mockery of the grossest kind. Douglas uses many rhetorical strategies to convey his powerful emotions on the subject, and the end result is a very effectively argued point. Douglass begins by asking a series of rhetorical questions, not without the use of sarcasm. He refers to "that" Declaration of Independence, instead of "the" Declaration of Independence, to stress the separation between his people and those who are not oppressed. In the next paragraph, he continues to ask rhetorical questions. The purpose of all these questions is to give

Therefore, he appears quite compelling when he attempts to bring out the connection between religion and slavery. Looking at what Douglass went through as a slave, it is unfortunate that his act of reading the Bible was considered a violation of the law. At one point, Douglass narrated that his master’s wife offered Douglass with help to read and write. However, due to “advice” given by her husband and the connection between the Bible and slavery, Douglass’s master’s wife turned against him and was now cruel and bitter towards him.

"Fellow - citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?" (Douglass) Here he appeals to ethos. Douglass was once a slave who was able to escape. As a former slave, he did not experience the Fourth of July the same way free people did.

This is hypocritical in that the white men make these values and traditions a staple of their lives, yet when it comes to slaves, they seem to go away. He also believes that, though he will use “the severest language”(Douglass) he can, he firmly believes that “not one word shall escape me that any man whose… not blinded by prejudice, or… a slave-holder, shall not confess to be right and just”(Douglass). So he sincerely believes that the average human being also knows that the treatment of slaves is unjust and unethical, but they choose not to act on these thoughts. His view, coming from the eyes and thoughts of slaves across America, show how hypocritical the nation actually is in both one sided values and not acting upon their knowledge that what is going on is wrong.

By supporting the Revolutionaries actions to break free from British Rule, Douglass alluded to the similar fight that the American population faced to attain the same liberty that white citizens had. With the same courage the Founding Fathers had to create a free country, the American generation of 1852 faced a similar test to uphold the values of the Declaration of Independence, and liberate American slaves.7 After applauding the Founding Fathers, Douglass acknowledges that the emphasis of his speech is not to give praise, but to call on America to act on it’s own failures and begin to faithfully fulfill the nations oath.8 He asks his audience, “Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us [African Americans]?”9 This rhetorical question Douglass presents, challenges America to reevaluate what they are truly celebrating on the Fourth of July, for it is surely not the freedom in which they claim to have achieved. Douglass asserts that asking black people to rejoice in the “shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery”10 and do not respect the courage, and steps the Founding Fathers took to create a free, liberated nation.11

He tells them that slavery is in contradiction of what the founding fathers valued and believed in, as well as what they fought for. Frederick says the founding fathers believed in freedom and equality. The same things they fought to get away from, are the same things white Americans were doing to African Americans in that present time. He says in his speech, “Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit earnestly sought redress,” (404). This quote is an example of how the founding fathers were feeling under England’s government, and how Frederick Douglass was relating it to how blacks were getting treated and how they felt throughout the United States in that present time. He wanted white Americans to recognize how they were portraying their nation. Another way he gets his audience to recognize what they were doing was wrong was by using their emotions to trigger shame and disappointment within themselves. Mr. Douglass shames them by comparing them to their founding fathers, who they look up to and celebrated. He says in the speech, “You live and must die, and you must do your own work…You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence,” (407), to shame his audience on not carrying on the principles and morals that the founding fathers worked so hard to gain. Another example of him guilting his audience is when he

“For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold…that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men…we are called upon to prove that we are men!” (Douglass) During his speech, Douglass elaborated on the different aspects of why blacks have a natural right to freedom as any other human being He argued it is wrong to turn a man into a “brute” and proceeded to argue that slavery is not divine in its origin. Douglass’s speech was a calling for equality, for change. He accomplished his goal and proved the fourth of July was a revolting reminder to him and those like him of the continual inhumane cruelty American attempted to conceal through its mockery.

Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass’s use of pathos in their speeches work to make their argument stronger because they both want to see a change in America that would give a wide spread of equality and freedom for all. What can be more important than protecting your own people and trying to support them in a helpful, positive way? In Abraham's Lincoln 2nd Inaugural Address pathos was used in a smart way by commenting on a godly issued observation due to the fact that many individuals used to be more religious in that time period. In Lincoln's words, “Both read the same Bible, and pray the same God;...” Lincoln also writes, “as God gives us to see the right; let us strive on to finish the work we are in: to bind the nation's wounds;...”, here he includes God to make his writing stronger and

Douglass gave this speech in 1852, which was before the civil war. In his speech, Douglass starts by apologizing for being nervous in front of the crowd of people, but acknowledges that he has come a long way since slavery. This is proving that the tone of the speech is humble and loyal. Towards the end of the speech the tone changes and Douglass begins to become more passionate and angry. The reason that the tone changes is because Douglass soon starts to talk about slavery and connects it to when he was a slave. This brought lots of emotion and truth.

On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed in the United States of America. The document declared the United States to be independent from Great Britain, who originally established colonies in America. From this moment on, The United States of America continued to add onto its newly formed country through conquests and treaties. The people of the United States believed they had a God given right to expand and control the territory that laid west of them. This idea of Manifest Destiny (Genovese, 2009) was an ideology of most Americans in the 1800’s. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Adams-Onis Treaty in 1819, Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842, the annexation of Texas in 1845, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, and the Kansas-Nebraska

Frederick Douglass was another abolitionist who also spoke out vigorously about slavery. He himself was an emancipated slave who fought for the abolishment of slavery. He fought to demonstrate that it was crude, unnatural, ungodly, immoral, and unjust. During a July 4th Celebration he made it known that he despised the treatment of the slaves. He explained that this hypocrisy was aimed at the black population and so in his speech on the Fourth of July celebration he proclaimed to the anti-slavery individuals that “This Fourth of July is yours not mine” and “You may rejoice, I must mourn”. Frederick Douglass quoted from the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal; and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. He wondered if the rights that are stated in the Declaration of Independence, apply to everyone in America, because he believed they should. He asked the question what the Fourth of July was to an American slave, and responded, to the American slaves that one day, is full of hyprocrisy. He wondered how people could celebrate liberty and equality where there was slavery in America. In support of his idea of how sorrow slavery was Douglas used imagery. He stated, “I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the South; I see the bleeding footsteps; I

Even though the religion of the slaves mention in Douglass’s narrative are full of faith and are relying on God, the masters or slaveholders wanted to take matters in their own hands. The slave owners believed that they were the superior beings and were not equal to the slaves. Douglass even mentions that he had a fight with a master of his and that the “Christian city of Baltimore” probably would not have done anything “if I had been killed” (989). When Douglass states this he is showing how superior the slave holders and white people thought they were to the slaves. The slaveholders however, did not even counter in religion. The slave owners just thought that their race was superior and that was final. However, they should have read scriptures

Both the “Declaration of Sentiments” written by Elizabeth Stanton and “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” both take their stance for freedom and independence in their own way. Stanton fights for the freedom of women where she explains there,” is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward women, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.” Douglas on the other hand states” The fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” African Americans can’t share the same independence as their white counter parts of freedom and natural justice embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

Douglass would read his documents over and over again.When reading them they would frequently flash memories through his mind. Of how cruel people can be to go to Africa and steal a child from their home to become a slave.Douglass had loathed them so much for being the most wicked of men. I don’t think you would like it if someone were to come at the middle of the night and take you away from your family.Bring you to some land and make

Douglass proceeds onward to talk about the wrongs conferred by America, and how they have heaped out of this world to the final turning point. He expresses that any simply man who isn't partiality might see that his words are of truth. He talks about the Constitution, he discusses the Bible, and he talks about God. He brings up God to move the people in direction because in that time period if God wasn’t an option you was a demon. People act on Godly things to have a better life. "For it isn't light that is required however fire" (F. Douglass). The light is the self-evident the contentions for the opportunity of all men, however the fire is what is missing, what is frantically required the extreme arousing of America to its own wrongdoings against mankind, and the basic of evolving this, since it cannot be fixed, but rather it can just deteriorate. His words appear to stream with a warmed intensity which couldn't be halted. One could just envision really hearing the discourse when it was given by Douglass himself. It would bode well to contrast him with an evangelist, up at the platform, standing up against the fallen angel and his courses with flame and