july fourth for the negro
History

The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro: A Speech by Frederick Douglass

Jemar Tisby

No other phrase in the founding documents of the United States stings an African American as much as this one: “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.”

The Declaration of Independence was not a declaration for all but for some. “All men” did not include people of African descent. “Unalienable rights” were stripped from those who were taken from their homeland and forced into lifelong servitude. And “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” could not be pursued at the end of a chain.

The former slave and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, gave a speech on July 5, 185,2 in Rochester, NY commemorating the day of independence for the United States. Cognizant of the contradictions embedded into the foundation of the United States, Douglass expounded for his audience the significance of “independence” day for black people. In it, he loses no respect for the founders of the nation calling them “statesmen, patriots, and heroes.” But he does not fail to point out the hypocrisy of declaring freedom from Britain’s control while subjugating an entire race of people.

Below are some excerpts from Douglass’ speech. His words remind us that for some Americans, independence ends with an asterisk.

Read the full text of the speech here.


“I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.”

“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.”

“My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave’s point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July!”

“Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America!”

“What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.”

“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”

“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.”

“‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope.”


Listen to a dramatic reading of Frederick Douglass’ speech by James Earl Jones.

 

12 thoughts on “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro: A Speech by Frederick Douglass

  1. Yoli Moore

    yoli69@me.com
    Thank you, as always Jemar. Thank you. Some of these comments tho…????????????

  2. Helmstead

    What’s sad is that you don’t know that it was the Republicans who passed the civil rights bills, not the democrats. But hey, that’s what modern media and education revisionists want you to believe. You people won’t get it until you look up the voting stats yourself. So please, by all means, actually educate yourself before saying such ignorant things.

  3. Deborah Miranda

    Seeking understanding: why would you compare the institutional subjugation of the past & reticence to celebrate Independence Day by those enslaved to the present condition of no institutional slavery or racism. Not trying to be arrogant but it seems such a different time. Also why the chain of enslavement of an “entire race”. All Africa was not in subjugation.

  4. Amanda

    This is an excellent perspective. These comments though 🙁 God bless you Jemar!

  5. g

    Dear John H. I am not a highly educated or articulate man. However, I read some that are so I can refer you to Jarvis Williams’ Latest entry over at TGC “Kingdom Multi-Ethnicity As Ground for Urgent Multi-Ethnic Church Planting and Reform. I hope you will benefit from his insights as I have.

  6. Charles

    Great article.

  7. John N

    “this continuing sin of the church”??????

    Did you read the speech G?

    The Great Orator delivered this brilliant speech a decade before the war, two decades before Emancipation, and more than a century before the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965. I don’t know what you are referring to by “this continuing sin in the church,” but there is no mistaking that Douglas’ audience knew very well that African slaves were in VERY REAL CHAINS, not the PERCEIVED chains of today’s American liberals both in and outside the church.

    As the Israelites, which Douglas mentioned in the speech, were set free from REAL, not PERCEIVED political chains, and COMMANDED to perpetually praise their chain-breaking God throughout all generations, are you, like Mr. Tisby, really not able TODAY to give perpetual praise, not only for setting our spiritual fathers free in Egypt, but also for REALLY, ACTUALLY setting free scores of African slaves in America, many of which were, through this dark providence also set free from spiritual enslavement with enduring spiritually free children today?????

  8. ROBERTO MONPLAISIR

    I find it odd that many conservatives would shame the civil rights movement because they say the Christian response should be to subject yourself to the higher powers that be, yet they celebrate the way in which America acquired it’s independence. That’s hypocrisy at its finest.

  9. ROBERTO MONPLAISIR

    Great article !

  10. g

    Thank you Jemar for this resource. If only, to our shame, we would exchange the word church for the word nation in the speech you mention here, it would be more accurate and hopeful. It seems to me that from the beginning you have modeled a teachable humble spirit to us who are not as black. It is my prayer that God continue to open up the eyes of the not as black leaders of the true church to see this Elder qualifying spirit in the more as black men all around us now and install them now as they are in heven, “Your will on earth as it is in… (in my neighborhood?)…. heaven”, now. It has always been time for the church to fix it through men like you who are able to take the heat from with in the church now. Please keep challenging the church with your gift of burden and your growing gift of articulating as to the damage to the gospel witness of the church that this continuing sin of the church is now.

  11. John N

    Mr. Tisby,

    Perhaps you were in a hurry when you wrote these brief comments about this riveting speech. One might get the impression that you are indifferent to the fact that the Great God heard the cries of His enslaved people in America, like Douglas, and heard the cries of sympathizing white Christians and, through benevolent and wonderfully providential means SET THEM FREE!

    In his speech, Douglas likens the celebration of Independence Day to Israel’s Passover. However, when Israel was set free, praise for God’s great goodness toward them was commanded to be perpetually exclaimed by the former slaves throughout all generations. That praise for His chain-breaking mercy is to be exclaimed without end is itself a testament to just how great His mercy truly is and how worthy He is to receive praise for it!

    Why then, are you, Mr. Tisby, not opening your mouth ON THIS 4th of JULY with praises for the benevolent God, Who inclined His ear and SET THEM FREE, due to nothing good in the American slaves, but due only to His Great Goodness and desire to display His mercy AND THEN RECEIVE PRAISE FOR IT? Why? (Of course, your answer must be that blacks in American really are not free, but still “everywhere he is in chains”, as your “unconstrained” worldview demands)

    Certainly, on THAT 4th of JULY, the Great Orator, truly had reason to lament the hypocrisy of this nation toward Africans. That is an understatement indeed. But on THIS 4th of JULY, all American Christians, black and white, must join in praises for God for His Great Goodness toward the formerly enslaved Africans in America, toward Israel, and all who have been set free among the Israel of God.

    Again, perhaps you were in a hurry when you wrote your intro to this speech. I am pretty certain that at home today with your family you are giving the praise and thanksgiving to God which is due to Him for setting all captives free through Christ Jesus, and praying for the freedom for those of our brothers and sisters who really are still in physical captivity.

  12. Jay

    Great article

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