Douglass was also ahead of his time in rejecting the notion of inherent differences between races. The President of Frederick Douglass Republicans of Tarrant County Reading List is found below: "Nothing To Lose, Everything To Gain"by Kathy Haiti Among the Foremost Civilized Nations of the Earth: An Address The Union and How to Save It David W. Blight is Sterling Professor of American History at Yale University and the author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, which was awarded the Bancroft Prize, the Francis Parkman Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize. WebThe title of Frederick Douglasss first recorded speech, delivered in October 1841, just three years after his own escape from bondage, signaled the driving impulse of his extraordinary career: to lift the veil on American slavery and the white supremacist ideology that justified it. How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! This Decision Has Humbled the Nation: An Address Some of these have had wives and children, dependent on them for bread; but of this, no account was made. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. The sunlight that brought life and healing to A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. In 1893, the first worlds fair, then known as The World's Columbian Exposition, opened in Chicago. when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. With startling immediacy, these writings chart the evolution of Douglasss thinking about slavery and the U.S. Constitution; his eventual break with William Lloyd Garrison and many other abolitionists on the crucial issue of disunion; the course of his complicated relationship with Abraham Lincoln; and his deep engagement with the cause of womens suffrage. It is neither. This comprehensive biography on Douglass by David Blight is worth the 700-page read. The Lords of Buffalo, the Springs of New York, the Lathrops of Auburn, the Coxes and Spencers of Brooklyn, the Gannets and Sharps of Boston, the Deweys of Washington, and other great religious lights of the land have, in utter denial of the authority ofHimby whom they professed to be called to the ministry, deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and against the remonstrance of the Apostles, they teachthat we ought to obey mans law before the law of God. Space is comparatively annihilated. Let it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold their offices under an open and palpablebribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a mans liberty,hear only his accusers! S. R. Ward The Proclamation and a Negro Army: An Address They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. Douglass Monthly, October 1862 Douglass Monthly, August 1863 In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. Narrated by actor Wendell Pierce, it retraces many pivotal moments in Douglass life: How he traded biscuits as a boy with White playmates to learn how to read; the crucial contributions of his first wife; his legendary two-hour fight with an overseer; and a recreation of his famed Fourth of July speech. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests. As the Civil War progressed and emancipation seemed imminent, Douglass intensified the fight for equal citizenship. But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains to be presented. Oh! The Future of the Colored Race Give Us the Freedom Intended for Us Buccola, Nicholas. What the Black Man Wants. Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nations jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? Amongst Hunter's writings are several pieces intended for a local encyclopedia which detail historic locales and important North Carolina men. Frederick Douglass Paper, June 2, 1854 University Press London website to place your order. be warned! Lessons Of The Hour (1894) performed by Jeffrey Wright. Douglass had become an internationally celebrated speaker and newspaper editor. In a speech delivered in June 1863, Douglass spoke what the future may hold for Black people. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. And yet he still believed that we could, and would, do better. A bloody Civil War fought over slavery had ended only four years earlier. To the National Anti-Slavery Standard There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. Frederick Douglass Paper, September 10, 1852 Reply to Postmaster General Montgomery Blair Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. After Frederick Douglass passed away, his second wife Helen preserved Cedar Hill as a historic house museum. I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. greater than that of the white people of the South. You glory in your refinement and your universal education yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful as ever stained the character of a nation a system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty. The correspondence subseries are: Business/Community Incoming Correspondence, Personal Incoming Correspondence, and Outgoing Correspondence. When people talk today about Douglass speaking prowess, they often cite his defiant What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? address. Exeter, England, August 28, 1846 Lessons of the Hour: An Address The Big Speech: November 19, 2010: Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking: December 12, 2010: When Douglass delivered his famous The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro address before an audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, he was issuing a scathing indictment of American hypocrisy, Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy reminded readers. Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster about this day. On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abrahams great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. But he gave another speech that deserves wider recognition because Douglass spoke with uncanny precision about the kind of debates were having now about race, immigration, and what makes America exceptional. WebSpeeches Frederick Douglass was known as a bold and passionate speaker. The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. Friends and citizens, I need not enter further into the causes which led to this anniversary. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. Among the correspondents are several African American Congressional representatives such as George H. White and Henry P. Cheatham; major political figures like Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Alexander Logan; important African American scholars including W.E.B. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. The North American Review, June 1881 Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! by Frederick Douglass. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. And while slavery has long been abolished and outlawed, the sentiment behind the address still applies in many unfortunate ways when it comes to the overall Black experience in America. Douglass Monthly, November 1859 Fellow-citizens! It is fashionable to do so; but there was a time when to pronounce against England, and in favor of the cause of the colonies, tried mens souls. Frederick Douglass Paper, March 4, 1853 The North Star, November 16, 1849 Salutatory It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) the internal slave trade. It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign slave-trade is contemplated. Most noteable is a transcription of Frederick Douglass' speech given at the 2nd Annual Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.. But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of. The Republican Party But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. You must give them all or take from them all. But overt White supremacy was still a social and political norm. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Of Douglasss many speeches, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? was perhaps one of the most well-known. Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? A smile or a tear has no nationality; joy and sorrow speak alike to all nations, and they, above all the confusion of tongues, proclaim the brotherhood of man.. 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! Douglass began advocating for equality after he escaped slavery in Maryland in 1838. The Mission of the War: An Address Douglass lived in an even more brutal era and experienced the worst forms of racial prejudice and American hypocrisy. Specific topics touched on throughout his papers include race relations, voting rights, creating an educational system for African Americans, the temperance movement, reconstruction, African American business and agriculture, the North Carolina Industrial Association, and the North Carolina Negro State Fair. The Final Struggle They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. They did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it. Douglass Monthly, May 1861 He bought a printing press and ran his own newspaper. Or would it, and other nations, fare better with a homogenous population where most people look alike and share the same religious beliefs? It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. A Call for the British Nation to Testify against Slavery: An Address or is it in the temple? There is also correpondence from two early African American Congressmen, Henry P. Cheatham and George H. White. The drove moves tardily. Boston, Massachusetts, January 26, 1865 Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you. My Experience and My Mission to Great Britain: An Address They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. No political figure not even Abraham Lincoln talked that way about the US in the mid to late 19th century. This inexpensive compilation of his speeches adds vital detail to the portrait of a great historical figure. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody. All Others: Visit our Yale The crack you heard, was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was from the woman you saw with the babe. The clippings have been copied and arranged chronologically; the originals are closed to use. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. The Constitution and Slavery The country was poor in the munitions of war. To Our Oppressed Countrymen They decided that New York City was not a safe place for Frederick to remain as a fugitive, so they settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts. And why is it so little-known today? But now is the time, the important time. The North Star, December 3, 1847 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. It was, Milloy continued, a critique of a nation that claimed to hold dear the principles of freedom, justice and equality even as it enslaved black people.. What are some of Frederick Douglasss most famous writings and speeches? 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. There are illustrations of it near and remote, ancient and modern. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject of public discourse! From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of night; for since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed. He saw the Supreme Court demolish hard-won laws that granted Black citizens political power. Men of Color, To Arms! Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. Correspondence, scrapbooks of clippings, print material such as articles and reports, and other papers, all dating from the Civil War into the first few decades of the 20th century. No! Douglass Monthly, March 1862 WebWORD COUNT: 1,660 words. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave-hunter. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. As. Your President, your Secretary of State, ourlords,nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce, as a duty you owe to your free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. You will see one of these human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. There, the question of emancipation was a high religious question. A Critical Edition. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. WebThis is a list of films produced and distributed by HBO Films. Douglass Monthly, September 1862 Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass National Historic Douglass Monthly, October 1862 Is that a question for Republicans? The historian Jill Lepore called it one of the most important and least-read speeches in American political history. And the historian Andrew Roth said Douglass address is one of the earliest and still most eloquent tributes to the beauty of Americas ever-expanding definition of the We in We the people.. 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