LAD #16: Frederick Douglass' 5th of July Speech

Frederick Douglass, in his speech for the "5th of July," addresses the moral question of what the 4th of July truly means to an African American slave. Immediately Douglass expresses his utter disgust for the practices of the United States in celebrating their historic claims to independence, as it stood for a false sense of successfully terminating tyranny throughout the nation. Here he finds it rather urgent to remind the country that despite their joyous actions more and more enslaved blacks are being neglected and forgotten, allowing them to grow in their beliefs against the injustices throughout America. The idea that these enslaved men are lesser than their white brethren, to beat and whip and starve and alienate and destroy their rights to liberty, their freedoms as Americans are only continually denied. Douglass asserts that such a nation cannot be unified considering the vast success that many of these African American people have had in holding occupations such as whaling, being a father, building houses, constructing bridges, and even developing their faith as a devout believer in God. Conclusively, Douglass claims that despite the noble actions taken on behalf of this nation for independence, a truth not yet paralleled by any other nation, their has also been numerous atrocities against slaves which have occurred within its borders that have not seen anywhere else throughout the world.