




The Fourth of July is an American holiday in which not all Americans could celebrate during the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July” by Frederick Douglass is a speech which describes how this great American holiday is not so great and significant to a slave living in America. During Douglass’s time, black Americans in the slave holding South could not attend celebrations of the Fourth of July. This is because many slaveholders did not want them to get a taste or idea of what freedom was like. Furthermore, blacks in the North were often discouraged from attending these Fourth of July celebrations. Accordingly, Douglas argues how the Fourth of July is a mockery to the American slave. He explains how the freedoms won over by all Americans from the victory of Revolutionary War are only extended to the white Americans. Douglas says, “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham” (Douglas 265). This excerpt shows the furiousness of Douglas pertaining to the freedom that is not extended to black Americans, particularity the slave. For example, and most obviously, any slave in America was virtually owned by a white man. Any person who is considered property of another, has absolutely no freedom and therefore the freedom from Britain, won over in the American Revolution, has no value to him. By looking at Chapter 2 of Eric Foner’s “The Story of American Freedom” and Paul Quigley’s “Independence Day Dilemmas in the American South, 1848–1865,” the reader can acquire a better understanding of Independence Day celebrations and the rights of slaves in the 19th century. This is crucial to the understanding of Frederick Douglas’s speech, “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July,” because the ideas from both articles support arguments that Douglas lays out, relating to the feelings that slaves and black Americans had towards the Fourth of July. 

“Independence Day Dilemmas in the American South,” written by Paul Quigley, is a historical and analytical piece on The Fourth of July in the South, during the Civil War. This piece focuses on the differences between the Civil War Era-South Americans and the slaves not being able to celebrate Independence Day. The second chapter of Eric Foner’s “The Story of American Freedom,” talks about the liberties that were not extended to slaves and blacks and the methods they took to speak out for themselves so they too could share the same freedom and celebrate American Independence. Both of these articles are crucial to helping one better understand and appreciate Frederick Douglas’s commanding speech about the disgusting reality that is; people who possessed a different skin were not able to celebrate the freedom that they also fought for. Some of the anger originated from the fact the both Anglo Americans and African Americans were fighting in the War, but most slaves remained the property of their masters when the war was over, therefore their service in the war was virtually for nothing (Kornweibel 166). This independence from Great Britain, that they were supposedly fighting for, was only for the freedom of their masters and white Americans. This is the guts of why Douglas and African Americans across the country did not feel that the Fourth of July was a holiday worth celebrating for them. The Fourth of July was a white American holiday. 

Foner explains how slavery is not only the notion of being reduced to a type of property. “When most patriot leaders spoke of slavery, they meant the denial of the right of self-government or the dependence on the will of another,” (Foner 31). According to John Dickinson, “Those who are taxed without their own consent are slaves.” These two ideas combined account for the conclusion that the leaders of America believed they were slaves to Great Britain. This belief of “slavery” is what caused the Americans to fight for their independence. So on one side you have a county who believes that it is enslaved by another country, and within that country there is a group of people who are enslaved in regards to being property of the opposite race. “Lemuel Haynes, a black member of the Massachusetts militia and later a celebrated minister, urged that Americans ‘extend’ their conception of freedom. If liberty were truly ‘and innate principle’ for all mankind, Haynes insisted, ‘even an African as equally good a right to his liberty in common with Englishmen” (Foner). This idea ties heavily into the fact that all men, regardless of skin color have an innate right to freedom. So why should the black man not have the right or desire to celebrate the Fourth of July? This treatment of humans based on the color of their skin is immoral and it angers people like Frederick Douglas who speak out on behalf of the oppressed peoples. 

Paul Quigley’s “Independence Day Dilemmas in the American South,” gives a great perspective and comparison to the way the black southerners and white southerners during the civil war era treated the Fourth of July. This article is important because it helps to understand Douglas’s speech and realize how the blacks felt. The article by Paul Quigley mostly talks about the Southerner’s feelings during the Civil War but it also talks about the slave’s role during the Fourth of July. Although the situation between both groups is strikingly similar it is also quite different. The similarity between the two, is that both had an issue with celebrating this American Independence even though they both lived in America. The major difference at hand, written out in this article, is that the black Americans reason for not celebrating the Fourth of July was much more justified since it was based on discrimination rather than choice. These men were denied their right to freedom because of their skin color. They had no self-worth because they were valued as a white man’s property. This is a horrendous reality for the slaves because their choice to celebrate the 4th of July is not really a valid choice.  For the Southerners it was a fair choice because they decided they did not want to be a part of America, largely in part to the ownership of slaves. So when these men successfully succeeded from the Union they were still free, unlike the slaves, but they were not part of America. Quigley writes, “The Fourth was to closely associated with the now-defunct Union. And besides, at a time when soldiers from South Carolina and the other southern states had already begun to face off against their northern foe, it did not seem appropriate to hold the customary public revelry” (Quigley 235).  So the major issue at hand became, “how do we celebrate an American holiday when we are no longer part of America?” Well for most they decided that for now this was an occasion that the south could not celebrate.  On the other hand, the slaves were forced into unpaid labor and were not extended the same liberties that were won over by the white Americans in the Revolutionary War. 

In conclusion, by looking at Chapter 2 of Eric Foner’s “The Story of American Freedom” and Paul Quigley’s “Independence Day Dilemmas in the American South, 1848–1865,” these two articles can allow the reader to enjoy a better understanding of Independence Day celebrations and the rights of slaves in the 19th century. The two supporting articles provide a valuable historical context to Independence Day and the state of slaves and blacks during the Civil War-Era. Without these two references it may be more difficult for a reader to put Douglas’s speech into an understandable context.  





