Community Reading: Frederick Douglass's "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

The Community Reading

“Above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wails of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today, more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.”

-Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

Duration:

1 hour, 29 minutes, 50 seconds

A community reading, sponsored by the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Introduction by David Blight.

Although many Americans identify July 4 as their Independence Day, many others look at this date with an entirely different context. In 1852, the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society asked Frederick Douglass to deliver a Fourth of July address. Although he accepted the invitation to speak, he insisted that he deliver his address on July 5: both because this had become regular practice in New York’s Black community, and perhaps in part because slave auctions had often been held on July 4. When making this speech, Douglass even asked his audience, “Do you mean, citizens, to mock me by asking me to speak today?” Today one of Douglass’s most famous addresses, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” challenges audiences to think critically about the meaning of freedom and equality.

In the months and years leading up to July Fourth celebrations in 1852, Americans would have been engaging with difficult, yet critical, conversations about liberty and equality. Abolitionists, who had been fighting to abolish slavery for decades, began to make use of more militant tactics. Free Black communities and their white allies led protests to fight back against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which in many cases utilized force and violence. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s work Uncle Tom’s Cabin, released in March of 1852, sparked national conversation. Voters may have been thinking about the election that would occur in November of 1852.

Frederick Douglass fought not only as an abolitionist, but a suffragist. A public letter written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton was read at Douglass’s Funeral in 1895. Its concluding lines read, “Frederick Douglass is not dead! His grand character will long be an object lesson in our national history; his lofty sentiments of liberty, justice and equality...must influence and inspire many coming generations!” It should be noted that Douglass and Cady-Stanton had a complex relationship – highlighted in their disagreements over the 15th Amendment (for more context, please read the article linked here). The year 2020 holds incredible significance in voting rights history. This year, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment and the 150th anniversary of the passage of the 15th Amendment. Both anniversaries remind us that the fight for independence and equality did not end in the 18th century - a theme highlighted in Douglass’ speech.

We thank you for taking the time to watch this community reading of Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Source: Blight, David. “Chapter 13: By the Rivers of Babylon” of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (Simon & Schuster: New York, 2018).

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  Coming Soon...A Community Reading

  A short promotional video, produced by the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Former NPS Director Robert Stanton introduces a community reading of Frederick Douglass's speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Coming July 4, 2020 at 11:00am.

  Duration:

  3 minutes, 6 seconds

Read the speech

River Campus Libraries of the University of Rochester has a digitized version of the speech which you can access by clicking this link.

Meet the Readers

Below you will find a list of our readers in order of appearance. We would like to once again thank all who were willing to participate in this project. It would not have been possible without you!

Name	Affiliation
David Blight	Yale University
Sylvia Cyrus	Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Jewell A. Newton	The African American Museum in Philadelphia
Brent Leggs	National Trust for Historic Preservation; African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
Todd L. Sterling	River Road African American Museum
Theodore White	National Mall and Memorial Parks
Tiya Miles	Harvard University
Kathie Marsh	Family Heritage Museum; State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota
Jessica Bowes	Fort Stanwix National Monument
Jon Meade	Associate Regional Director, Region 1 (Northeast), National Park Service
Adam Fracchia	University of Maryland, College Park
Steve T. Phan	Civil War Defenses of Washington
Susan Tamulevich	Custom House Maritime Museum
James Bullock	Fort Mose Historical Society
Darion Miller	Lincoln Home National Historic Site
Richard Bell	University of Maryland
Suhey Ortega	Research Fellow, National Park Service
Maurice Imhoff	102nd USCT Black History Group
Catherine Bache	Student, University of Pennsylvania
Reggie Chapple	Acting Assistant Director, Parnerships and Civic Engagement, National Park Service
Ray Hill	Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area
Wes Jackson	Brooklyn Historical Society
Chad Hoing	Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
Yvette Madison, Sierra Hill, Icis Donald, Alana Donald, Pastor Ken Arnett	First Cambria AME Zion Church, Johnstown, Pennsylvania
David Vela	Deputy Director, Exercising the Authority of the Director, National Park Service
Eh Wei	Participant in Spoke'n Revolutions program, Triangle Bikeworks
Liza Stearns	National Parks of Boston
Lonnie G. Bunch III	Secretary, Smithsonian Institution
Elizabeth Rankin-Fulcher	Black Women's Leadership Caucus, Inc.
Betty Campbell	John Rankin House Historic Site
Merrill Kohlhofer	National Parks of Boston
Brittany Webb	Booker T. Washington National Monument
Allison Gregory, Jamel Miller, and Rose Archer	Rokeby Museum
Fatimah Purvis	Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
Dr. C. James Trotman	Frederick Douglass Institute, West Chester University
Amadu Shardow	New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
Rochelle Riley	City of Detroit Arts, Culture, and Entrepreneurship
Robert Stanton	Former Director, National Park Service
Maria Tinker	Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site
Jo Elizabeth Butler	Founder, Ethiopian Children's Appeal
Jan da Silva	New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
Karen Jones Meadows	Spiritual & Cultural Liaison
Maureen Lavelle	Death Valley National Park
Michael Allen	Retired, National Park Service/Allen Consultants
Joanna Grace Farmer	Building Community Capacity, LLC.
Ellen E. Endslow	Chester County Historic Center West Chester, Pennsylvania
Frank Toland	Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
Gerald McWorter (Abdul Alkalimat)	Great-Great Grandson of Frank McWorter, New Philadelphia Association
Joseph McGill	Magnolia Plantation and Gardens & Founder, Slave Dwelling Project
Ranger Angela Crenshaw	Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center
Claire Schuler	Tuskegee Airman National Historic Site
Margarete Schuler	National Park Service Volunteer
Rose Fennell	Deputy Regional Director, Region 1 (Northeast), National Park Service
Ted Johnson	Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
Benjamin Skolnik	Freedom House Museum, Office of Historic Alexandria
Joy Harjo	23rd Poet Laureate of the United States
Sherry Robinson Svekis	Angola Maroon Community Site
Liz Hokanson	Manassas National Battlefield Park
ER Shipp	Professor, Morgan State University
Matthew Pinsker	House Divided Project at Dickinson College
Kofi Elijah Whitehead	College Student
Karsonya Wise Whitehead	Professor, Radio Host
Ruth Bradley	Cayuga County, New York, Historian
Amir Elisha Whitehead	High School Senior
Denise DeLucia	Women's Rights National Historical Park
Nila Curry	Emory Fellowship UMC
Ryan O'Connell	George Washington Carver National Monument
Ivan Henderson	The African American Museum in Philadelphia
Debbie-Ann Paige	Public Historian
Eric W. Logan	Mount Hope Cemetery
Lisa Stewart Garrison	Willits Book Trust Committee, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting(Society of Friends)
Kimberly Szewczyk	Harriet Tubman National Historical Park
Kenthedo Robinson	Playwright, Crystal Image Performing Arts Company
Professor Vincent Stringer	Open Church of Maryland
John McCaskill	Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
Lenwood O. Sloan	Commonwealth Monument Project
Leroy T. Hopkins Jr. PhD.	African American Historical Society of South Central Pennsylvania
Ted Shaw	Professor of Law, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Leon Wilson	Museum of African American History, Boston & Nantucket
Roy E. Finkenbine	University of Detroit Mercy
Marvin S. Robinson III	Quindaro Ruins/UGRR Exercise 2021
Amanda Gorman	Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of the United States