Transcripts For CSPAN The Meaning Of July Fourth For The Neg

Todays discussion is Frederick Douglass and the meaning of july 4 for the negro. Manys program is one of the National Archives will present in washington and president ial libraries nationwide in celebration of the 241st anniversary of the adoption of the declaration of independence. Building is the only place to begin your july 4, as we will present our annual declaration of independence reading ceremony on independence avenue. Guests, thomas jefferson, benjamin franklin, adams,jefferson, john will read the constitution. Ceremony, there will be hands on a team of these for all ages until 4 00 p. M. Inside the National Archives building. The museum will remain open until 7 00 p. M. If you are not here in d. C. , the reading ceremony which begins at 10 a lot at 10 00 will be live streamed. We will conclude our celebratory with a noon program in this theater, discussing the sus sex resolution. The sussex resolution. The discovery of a second banks script of the declaration of the discovery of manuscript of the declaration of independence. Copies in the lobby, along with a signup sheet. You will also find brochures about other National Archives programs and activities. Another way to get more involved is to become a member of the National Archives foundation. The Foundation Supports the work of the agency, especially its education and outreach grants. You can become a member online at archives foundation. Work. Is my pleasure to welcome three special guests today. Johnson is a supervisory park ranger at the Frederick Douglass National Historic site here in washington dc and will moderate our discussion later. Least, robertnot s levine, distinguished professor from the university of maryland. He is the author of the 2016 book, the life of Frederick Douglass. Following todays program he will be signing copies of his book. We you please welcome, Professor Robert s levine. You for the introduction and my thanks to tom, for organizing this event. It is a real honor to be your. My guess is that you would rather hear an actor, over an academic. So i will be relatively brief with my introduction. As a lot of you know, Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818, in the Eastern Shore of maryland. For his first 20 years, he was a slave, moving back and forth between the Eastern Shore in baltimore. In 1838,d from slavery taking a train from baltimore while dressed as a sailor. Train from baltimore while dressed as a sailor. He made his way to bedford, massachusetts and worked in the shipyards there and as a minister. He stayed relatively quiet about his antislavery views, in part because he was still a fugitive slave and was afraid of being remanded back into slavery. But in 1841, he spoke out at an antislavery meeting in nantucket, massachusetts. And the great abolitionist, wayne lloyd garrison signed him up on the spot as an antislavery speaker with a good salary. And douglass, with the help of garrison, moved with his wife and two children to a house in massachusetts. Over the next several years, he was known as an electrifying antislavery speaker for garrisons antislavery society. Responding to skepticism that someone as eloquent as douglas could not possibly have been a in 1845,uglas, published his most famous work, the narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an american slave. This made douglas so famous in his own time, he had to flee to Great Britain or otherwise risk of being captured as a huge it of slave. Scotland, douglas became an International Celebrity as an antislavery speaker. British supporters bought him out of slavery in 1846, and in 1847, douglas returned to the united states. He decided to go to rochester, new york, instead of massachusetts, has british supporters had given him money so he could buy a Printing Press and start an antislavery newspaper, which he called the northstar. He did not want to compete with garrisons antislavery liberator, and he made rochester his home base untilyears and tear he relocated to washington dc around 1870. Man, was angryte at douglas for starting a competing antislavery newspaper and the two men publicly broke with each other. This is significant to the 1852 speech which is the focus of the program today. Believed the constitution was a proslavery document. That argueddocument antislavery people should not be involved in the political system. Douglass argued that slavery was an act of violence against black people which, in certain occasions, should be met by violence. He also argued it is important for the free press to be involved in the system. Accordingly, in 1850, he new believed that the constitution was, in spirit, and antislavery document. Douglass emerged as a radical abolitionist. Precipitating his break with garrison and the emergence of this new political stance was congresss passage of the compromise of 1850 which strengthen the fugitive slave law on the books. Following the passage of the fugitive slave law, people in the northeast were slavery did not exist where legally obliged to return fugitive slaves to their masters. From douglasss point of view, the compromise of 1850 with its fugitive slave law nationalized slavery and show the importance of political resistance. For douglass, the greatest example of political resistance and American History came from the revolutionary fathers and tohers who chose in 1776 declare their independence from Great Britain and to fight for their independence. , the year us to 1852 that douglass gave what many regard as the greatest antislavery speech ever delivered. What to a slave is the fourth of july . An address delivered in rochester, new york, on july 5, 1852. Douglass was invited to give this july 4th speech by the Rochester Ladies Antislavery Society and he delivered it at a large hall in rochester. Between 500 and 600 people, whites and blacks, paid 12 cents each to hear the speech, which was significant money. And auditory was public entertainment during the precivil war wars and people were willing to pay to hear great speakers. Douglass insisted on giving the speech on july 5 and not july 4. He felt until all african were free, he could not celebrate fourth. N the for those of either that think this country has a ways to go to achieve all the ideals of the declaration of independence, which, of course, begins with the assertion that all men are created equal, its therefore significant and in the great douglass tradition that wer having this evente on july 3rd and july 4th. Just before douglass gave his speech, rochesters reverend raymond read the complete text of the declaration of independence. Then Frederick Douglass walked to the stage. Ladies and gentlemen, the ,eaning of july 4th for negro otherwise known as what to a slave is the fourth of july . [applause] actor as Frederick Douglass friends and fellow citizens he who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than i have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than i do this day. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task the distance between the platform and the slave plantation from which i escaped is considerable and the difficulties in getting from the latter to the former are by no means slight. Today, to me, is a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. With little experience and less learning, i have managed to place my thoughts and perfectly together interesting to your patience and generous indulgence, i shall proceed to lay them before you. The purpose of the celebration is the fourth of july. It is the birthday of your National Independence. It is to use what the passover was to the emancipated people of god. Mind back toour that day into the act of your great deliverance. High lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth shall yet her destiny. Were america older, the patr iots heart might be sadder. The reformers heavier. Americas future might be shrouded in gloom. And the hope of her profits go out in sorrow. There is consolation in the thought that america is young. [chuckles] andow citizens, pardon me allow me to ask why am i called upon here to speak to you today . Or anyone i represent, to do with your National Independence . Are the great of Political Freedom and natural justice embodied in that declaration of independence extended to us . Am i to confess the benefits and expressed about gratitude resulting from the blessing of independence to us . God, for both your sakes and ours. , an affirmative answer would truthfully be returned to the question. Then one by labor the light and my burden easy and delightful for who would not bend his voice to the holidays o the hal ofujahs when the chains servitude have been torn from it limb . That is not the state of the case. Sad sense of disparity between us, i am not included within the pale of your glorious anniversary, your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The rich inheritance of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness bequeathed by your forefathers is shared by you, not me. The sunlight that brought life ght strife to you brou and death to me. This fourth of july is yours. Not ours. You may rejoice. We must mourn. And therag a man grand illuminated symbols of liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems is in human mockery and sacrilegious irony. Fellow citizens, by calling me here to speak to you today about the rivers by babylon . We wept one we remembered zio. N. Awayhey, who led us captive, required of us a song. They who wasted us required of us, sing that song of zion. But how should we sing the lords song in a strange land . O, jerusalem, if i say my right hand and if i do not ee, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Beyond yourens, national and two more choice joy. Mournful wailing of renderedho chains more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that greet them. , if i do nott remember the bleeding children of sorrow. Andmy right hand forgive may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. To forget them. Thereirass lightly over wrong and chime in with the popular theme is treason. Mores and shocking it would make me a reproach before god and the world. Fellow citizens, in american slavery, the simple story is that 76 years ago, the people of this country where british subjects. Your fathers deemed the english government as the home government and england as the fatherland. The home government did impose upon his colonial children burdens and restraints as it deemed wise, right and proper. But your fathers who had not c the popularh idea of the infallibility of government began to differ with those restraints. To pronounce english government as unruly, unjust and oppressive and altogether such as not also be quietly committed to and i scarcely need say, fellow citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords the fact of your fathers. To say now that americ was england waserica wa wrong is exceedingly easy and the cause of the colonies tried mens souls. Those who did so were called makers of mischief, agitators, rebels, dangerous men. But your fathers were brave men, statesman, patriots and heroes. And for the good they did and the cause they stood for, i will stand with you to honor them in their memory, feeling themselves ajustly treated, they saw redress. They petitioned and they remonstrated, loyal and respect full matter but oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not grow mad, they grew restive under this treatment. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable and their colonial capacity. It was just as this time that e idea of total separation of the colonies from the crown was born. Result of these United Colonies are, ought to be free and independent states that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between the colonies and the state of great betain is and are toought to dissolved, friends. Your fathers made good that revolution. Heir country better than they loved their own private interests. They states their lives, their their sacred honor they seized upon the principle and set a glorious example. Their defense marks them stands out all the more as we go through these degenerate time. Shall we take a look at this day with his popular characteristics from the slaves point of view . What to the american slave is your fourth of july . Answer. It is a data reveals more than any other day of the year, the cruelty to which he is a constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham. You know a swine drover . Drover. W you a man they inhabit all of our Southern States and they crowd the highways of the nation in droves of human stock. With pistol whips and bowie knife, driving 100 men, women and children, these souls are to be sold singly or in they are food for the cotton field and the deadly sugar mills. Mark the sad procession as they move along and the sadness drives them. See the old men. See the young womiaan whose shoulders are bear to the scorching sun. Her tears fall on the brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, the young girl of 13 weeping and she thinks of her mother from whom shes been torn. Mark the sad procession. Heat and sorrow nearly consumes ngth. Stree suddenly you hear a quick zap, like the discharge of arrival. Chains rattle. Your years are polluted with a string that seems to have b made its way into the center of your soul. The crack you heard was the sound of a whip. The screen you heard was a mother with a babe in her arms her strength has faltered under the weight of the chains and the child and the soldier tells her to move on. Follow the for session to new orleans. Attend an auction there. See men examines like horses. See the strains of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of american slave buyseers. Tell me where under the sun can you witness a spectacle morphine does and shocking and yet this is but it once of the american slave system that exists in the ruling part of the united states. But it is just in this moment when i hear someone in my audience say, it is just at that time that you and your fellow to make aists fails public impression. If you would argue more and announce less, if you persuade more your calluse might be much more likely to succeed. But i submit were all this plain, there is nothing to be argued. What point in the antislifer decreed would you have me argue . In th antislavery creeke would you have me argue . Is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. Slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of the loss of their government. When they punish a slave for disobedience. Thee are 72 crimes in state of virginia which if committed by a black man may subject him to the punishment of death while only two of those same crimes if submitted by a white man may subject him to like punishment. The knowledge that that the slave is a moral and intellectual and responsible being. Southern statutes are filled with enactment teaching the slaves, penalties how to read and write, when you can point to any such laws as it relates to the beast of the field, then i will consent to argue that the manhood is a slave. Americans, your republican yourics is as well as republican religion is flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love for liberty. Your high civilization, your pure christianity, although why the whole political power of the nation conspires to hold in bondage 3 million of its countrymen. You celebrate fugitives from abroad, you honor them with banquets, you salute them and you bless them, but of your own fugitives at home, you you h unt, arrest, shoot and kill. You mourn the hungry. Poetry, yourf your orators and your statesmen but of the 10,000 wrongs committed against the american slave, you enforce the strictest silence an enemy ofem him the nation that would make their subjects public you say that all men are created of one blood and all men should love one another, yet you hate those whose skin is not colored like your own. You proclaim before the world, we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and have been endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, and that of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Bondage ald in part of the inhabitants of your country. The existence of brands in this country your republicanism a sham. Your humanity a base pretense. Your christianity a lie. Powertroys your moral abroad. Corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the very foundation of religion. It make sure name a hissing and a byword to a mocking earth. Thank you. P[appluse] [applause] thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Prof. Levine thank you, that was riveting as always. Thank you so much for that. Im nate johnson, the supervisory park ranger at the Frederick Douglass Historic Site in washington, d. C. About 3 1 2 miles from the site. You have an opportunity to get over there if you would like. And i just got a say this is a really cool opportunity, because i cannot believe we are staying in the National Archives. Feet away from where the declaration of independence a a few milesd from Frederick Douglasss house. I will ask some questions of you judgment. First of all of you judgment. Of you gentleman. I believe you wanted to Say Something about how the speech was given when Frederick Douglass said it in 1852. Prof. Levine i wanted to comment on the weight was given right now. That was the finest performance i have ever heard of the douglass speech. Want to kind of step [applause] i want to step back to the 1850s because things were different then. Quiet andretty beautiful and polite. But there were a few moments, maybe one moment where people laughed. Ive read a whole bu