What To The Slave Is Fourth Of July Analysis

Frederick Douglass’s 4th of July speech was put on by the woman’s abolitionist society and looked to speak to the fellow citizens of America, friends, and the president.

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

Writers use pathos, ethos, and logos in their writing to appeal to their audience. Pathos is an appeal to emotions, ethos is an appeal to trust, and logos is an appeal to reasoning or logic. Frederick Douglass's, " What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" is about his views and the views of many slaves towards the Fourth of July. He uses ethos, pathos, and logos effectively to convey his central message.

Frederick Douglass was a freed slave in the 1800’s who was famous for his ability to read and write, uncommon of a black man at the time. On July 4th, 1852, he gave a speech to citizens of the United States. In this speech, he called out the “hypocrisy of the nation”(Douglass), questioning the nation's treatment of slaves on a supposed day of independence. Frederick Douglass effectively uses rhetorical strategies to construct his argument and expose the hypocrisy of the nation.

In the poem, “We Wear the Mask’, the narrator, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, expresses the pain African American experienced during the slave trade and how the slaves learned to suppress their emotions. The poem shows a contrast between African American’s social faces and their “bleeding hearts”. The tone of the poem is not a corrective tone, but rather an explanatory one. In considering the time period, it would make sense that the narrator would be careful about insulting the white community. In the first stanza the tone starts as explanatory in just speaking of the masquerade and state of oppression. Then the last two stanzas are very matter of fact. When the narrator sarcastically states, “Why should the world be otherwise”. Showing

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

Through his crafty use of rhetoric, Douglass delivered a scathing attack on the hypocrisy of America in his self-referential speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.” The speech articulated his passionate pursuit for liberty and equal rights. Douglass’s speech passionately argued that in the eyes of the slave and even the “free” black

Douglass continues to talk about how they all came to celebrate the fourth of July, but to remember that the nation is still young and has room for positive change. Douglass then asks this question, "Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” (p.407) By us Douglas is meaning blacks. This is supported by when he states that, “This Fourth of July is yours not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” (p.408) Slaves and former slaves like Douglass are only saddened on Independence Day because they still have no independence to cheer for. They were lied to and taken for granted after all the work they did to earn equal rights. To ask black people to celebrate the White man’s freedom is only teasing and disrespectful irony.

On July 5th 1852, Frederick Douglass, one of history’s outstanding public speakers, carried out a very compelling speech at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York. Within that moment of time where the freedom of Americans was being praised and celebrated, he gathered the nation to clear up the tension among slavery and the establishment of the country’s goals. Frederick Douglass’s speech mentions the development of the young nation, the Revolution, and his own life experience. While speaking, his main subject was seen to be American slavery. The “Fourth of July Oration” was a commendable model of Frederick Douglass’s affection and engagement towards the freedom of individuals. Frederick Douglass’s speech left an impact on his audience

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

For DuBois, the veil refers to three things. First, the veil suggests to the darker skin of Blacks, which is a physical difference from whiteness. Secondly, the veil suggests white people’s lack of clarity to see Blacks as “true” Americans. And lastly, the veil refers to Blacks’ lack of clarity to see themselves outside of what white America describes and provides for them. Dubois believes that socially present-day African-American has had at least two life-altering experiences in life. The moment they realized they was Black, and the moment when African Americans realize their blackness is a problem. Dubois realized his blackness being a problem For DuBois, these realizations came during a ball, “at which he was “peremptorily”

Freedom, this essential term present in the vocabulary of all Americans, is one of the most distinctive founding ideas that shaped the national identity. This idea of freedom undoubtedly defines America’s past and present identity. Whether it’s the fight for freedom from the British’s oppression, the fight for freedom of African Americans from the institution of slavery or the unalienable rights of freedom of speech and petition, freedom is deeply embedded in the fabric that makes up America. This term, freedom, never had a fixed meaning or definition. Instead, it has been the subject of conflict, disagreement and struggle throughout American History. There has been a constant debate over the meaning of freedom and it has given rise to different meanings constructed on almost all levels of society.

In the poem, We Wear The Mask, Paul Laurence Dunbar, uses irony to express the representation of the mask on the faces of African-Americans. A mask is a manner or expression that hides one’s true character of feelings; a pretense. The truth that lies behind the mask consist of lies as well as emotional and physical pain.

My initial reaction to the poem “We Wear the Mask” was amazed on how deep the meaning is. The poem can apply to almost anyone and its meaning is deeper than just applying to the African-Americans. Dunbar’s initial meaning was to express the distress of African-Americans had after the Civil War because they hid their feelings from the world, but this poem can be relatable to many groups of people. Muslims, Jews, and many more races/religions face hardships like the ones Dunbar explains in his poem. For example, women in many Muslim countries have to hide their thoughts and feelings and accept what happens such as the line in “We Wear the Mask”, “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile.” Dunbar also says in his poem, “We sing, but oh the clay

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask,” by many people, is viewed as a portrayal of the “mask” that all people wear to hide their inner self. The itself is “written from within black experience,” as stated by Peter Revell (On “We Wear the Mask”). Dunbar was an African American Writer in the time of Jim Crowe laws, so his story can ultimately be seen as a “mask” worn by his people during this time to hide not only their suffering, but the shame of their past as well. Gossie Hudson describes the poem as a way of Dunbar “revealing himself by the way he concealed himself” (On, “We Wear the Mask”).He revealed that, though he wore a mask of pride and happiness, he was full of sorrow.