Slave is the Fourth of July
In the speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” Douglass asserts that “there is nothing to be argued in the anti-slavery creed” because the fact that the slave is a man “is conceded already” (1238). Detail two of the points that he makes to support his assertion. In other words in what ways has the enslaved person’s manhood/ humanity already been conceded?
Sample Solution
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Douglass was a powerful orator, often traveling six months out of the year to give lectures on abolition. His speech, given at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was held at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York. It was a scathing speech in which Douglass stated, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine, You may rejoice, I must mourn.” In his speech, Douglass acknowledged the Founding Fathers of America, the architects of the Declaration of Independence, for their commitment to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness:”
