




What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July is a speech given by a runaway slave, Frederick Douglass, in 1852. After escaping and becoming educated, Douglass became an abolitionist because he was unsatisfied with the American mindset surrounding the injustice of slavery. By looking at the scientific, historical, economic, and religious arguments made by proslavery activists during the 19th century we can get a better understanding of Frederick Douglass’ frustration.

“The Proslavery Argument Revised” by David Donald shows different ways southerners convinced each other that slavery was justifiable by the use of scientific theories and research. Many American scientists devoted their whole careers to finding ways to defend the use of slavery. Other scientists conducted research to better the American population, and improve technology, but most southern researchers applied their time into finding various ways to defend the use of slavery.  There were less educated Southern communities than Northern ones at the time, so the theories that were constructed did not take much effort to make, and the southerners were prone to agree with any theory supporting the use of slavery. Scientist Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright conducted several experiments that revealed the immunity of the negro to many diseases that whites would catch. His tests also showed that the black community was prone to catching unusual diseases, such as drapetomania, which was a mental disease defined as, “the disease causing negroes to run away”. The ignorance of many southern scientists during this time period filled many abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass, with indignation. Slavery advocates would hide behind illogical theories to convince themselves and others that slavery was morally acceptable. Dr. Josiah C. Nott theorized that black people were not the same species as the white population because the measurements of the skull of a black person was different from a white man’s skull. By placing blacks between homo sapiens and orangutans he successfully convinced many white Americans into believing that they were better than the slaves, so slavery was not a bad thing. In Frederick Douglass’ speech it is obvious that he is very intelligent, so to say that blacks were less qualified humans than white people was nonsensical. Douglas knew that blacks were being unfairly oppressed, just like the founding fathers were. He shows this by stating, “Oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment” (Douglas 258). He is showing the white audience what the abolitionists will do under such unfair oppression. By looking at the historical context of this time we can see the reason why so many Americans truly did not believe slavery was a bad thing, which was the cause of Frederick Douglass’ frustration. During this time the typical person did not have the education to realize that these claims about blacks being less than whites were ridiculous, so they believed what they heard. People with more power and intelligence than the average citizen would trick others into supporting slavery. Most southerners during this time thought of slavery as a morally acceptable practice because of the duplicity of scientists.

David Donald demonstrates how proslavery activists tried to remove any guilt Americans might have by showing the use of slavery in history. Historians of the time proved that every human civilization had some sort of slavery so it was not a morally unacceptable practice. It did not take much effort to convince white Americans when they could easily show that George Washington, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson were slave owners. If the people who helped established America had slaves, historians claimed that it was acceptable to continue the practice of slavery. Frederick Douglass states that the founding fathers fought for their freedom, just as the abolitionists are doing now, but the only flaw in this arguments is that some of the founding fathers had slaves themselves. Douglass was nonetheless upset by the use of senseless theories which tried to prove why slavery was morally and socially acceptable. He knew that the white population was hiding behind illogical concepts to help them sleep at night. David Donald argues “that the deepest purpose of the proslavery argument was to purge the southerner, and especially the slaveholding planter, of his guilt over owning slaves” (Donald 8). It was obvious to Douglass, and most of America, that the use of slavery was barbaric and should be abolished, yet so many people devoted time to back up the ideology of proslavery. They also looked at the bible for historical context. Saint Paul states “Servants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ” (King James Version Ephesians 6:5). Many took this bible verse as assurance to the use of slaves in the modern era which they lived in. The bible shows Saint Paul telling servants to be obedient as they would be to Christ, so many took this as a direct parallel between the slave owners and Christ. History was an easy outlet for proslavery activists to hide behind when trying to create arguments for why slavery was morally and socially acceptable. 

Americans during the 19th century convinced themselves and others that slavery was ethically tolerable because it was such a vital part of the social and economic structure of America. “No Ordinary Sin: Antislavery Protestants and the Discovery of the Social Nature of Morality” by Molly Oshatz gives a look at the embedment of slavery in the economy and society of America. The society white citizens were born into made it easy for them to hide behind the culture and economy, ultimately escaping the responsibility of any condemnation for allowing and supporting slavery. This is where Frederick Douglass’ frustration comes from. He thinks if a culture is based on something that is wrong, that does not make it acceptable to hide behind the economic makeup of that society to avoid any guilt that comes from owning slaves. In “The Proslavery Argument Revised” David Donald shows how many works were done to prove that the abolition of slavery was unrealistic, and trying to eradicate the use of slavery was highly impractical for all of America. If proslavery activists could convince people that it is not worth their time to try and change how the country’s economic and social structure was, then it would be easy for slavery to remain intact. Frederick Douglass tries to show everybody the fallacies of this way of thinking. Blaming society for the immorality of slavery was an easy channel for slave owners to use during this time. 

Molly Oshatz shows how Christians during the time before and after the Civil War convinced themselves and others that slavery was a “social sin”. They defined slavery as a sin, but not directly the slave-owners fault, which meant the God would not punish them for it. All Christians eventually agreed, after a meeting of the Transylvania Presbytery in 1797, that slavery was indeed a sin. The fact that most of the population of America during this time period was made up of Christians left Douglass frustrated with the hypocritical state of the white community. His speech starts with him praising the founding fathers for their fight for freedom, but the tone shifts as he condemns the white, Christian population for celebrating freedom, when so many men were not free. Oshatz’s article illustrates how a society tricked itself and others into believing that even though slavery was a sin, it was not the slave owners fault. People thought that because there was no direct bible verse that condemns slavery they would not be punished for it. Oshatz states, “Given the absence of an explicit biblical condemnation, the antislavery moderates believed that it was unfair to condemn Christians of good character solely on the basis of slave ownership” (Oshatz 336). Frederick Douglass forces the audience to comprehend his argument that as they are all praising God for their freedom on this holiday, they are not taking account of the fact that they are all committing sins by not trying to abolish slavery. When men created conditions to benefit only one group of people, while it limited another, they were not truly being Christians, which Frederick Douglass criticizes whites for.

The way many Americans tried to justify the use of slavery reveals the cause of Frederick Douglass’ frustration in his speech What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July. The brutal condemnation of the hypocritical white American by Douglass is acceptable once the historical context of the time is presented. The use of science, history, religion, and the economy to create theories of why slavery is morally acceptable shows why Frederick Douglass was fed up with the ignorant mindset of many Americans.



