





For a long period of time in America’s history, slavery was not thought of as inhumane by most citizens. It started becoming a more controversial topic around the 1850s and 1860s, and the debate over it was one of the main causes of the Civil War. The abolitionist movement, a movement to end slavery, was one of the many things that helped push slavery to its close. People would go out and listen to abolitionist speakers or read their writings to grasp a better understanding of different opinions on the topic. Leaders of the abolitionist movement included people like Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, Anthony Benezet, and Frederick Douglass. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass, a well-known and respected leader of the abolitionist movement, gave one of his most famous speeches: “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” This speech strongly impacted the movement because Douglass, a former slave, had a point of view and background that was different than other abolitionists.

In the United States Census of 1850, it was found that there were 3,204,313 slaves, which represented about 13.8% of America’s total population. Around this time, slavery was a heated debate and almost everyone disagreed on the morality of it. In September of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, which served to further the disagreements over slavery. This law made it so that if a runaway slave was caught, they had to be returned to their masters by whoever caught them. It was required that all citizens obey this law, no matter what their opinions on slavery were. Abolitionists nicknamed this law the “Bloodhound Law” because of the dogs that were used to track down slaves (Campbell 259).  In December of 1865, slavery was abolished by the thirteenth amendment. The passing of this amendment did not happen overnight, and it did not come without its struggles, which is where the abolitionist movement had a big influence. Before he become one of the most influential leaders of the abolitionist movement, Frederick Douglass was born as a slave. He experienced many hardships that factored into how much influence Douglass was able to have on the movement.

Frederick Douglass was born as a slave on a plantation on the Eastern shore of Maryland in February of 1818. As a young boy, he saw things like “…the slave ships in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh…” (Douglass 266). Seeing things like this helped fuel Douglass’ hatred towards slavery. As he started getting older, he began to manipulate white boys at the plantation to teach him to read and write, which is how he began his education. As he grew older, his life as a slave became more and more difficult, and he did not escape bondage until the age of twenty, in 1838. Before he escaped bondage, however, he got into a fight with his master, Covey. According to Matlack, “Covey grabbed Douglass unawares and tried to tie him up so that he could be whipped… Douglass fought Covey to a draw” (22). Even though it seems like this fight did not do any physical damage to Douglass, the fact that his master made him angry enough to fight shows that his time as a slave was harder than most. After his successful escape, Douglass became involved with the abolitionist movement as soon as possible. He is best known for his first book, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. He had to move to the UK for a little while to avoid being caught and forced back into slavery, but after that, he thrived as a leader of the abolitionist movement. 

Frederick Douglass’ impact on the abolitionist movement can be traced back to his personal connection with slavery. Before he escaped from his plantation, Douglass’ life as a slave was full of hardships. According to James Matlack, Frederick Douglass, in his autobiography titled The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, said: 

…to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason… He must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases a man (21).

His view of a slave masters’ objective being to degrade or dehumanize their slaves helps put Douglass’ time as a slave into perspective. In his speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” he says “In the deep still darkness of midnight, I have often been aroused by the dead heavy footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door” (267). His personal recount of what other victims of slavery had to go through helps add validation to his speech. The people of the audience were more likely to listen to what he was saying if he gave specific stories from his time as a slave. Because of this, Douglass was able to impact the abolitionist movement more than those who did not go through as much as he did.

Frederick Douglass’ education in both writing and America’s past helped further the impact of his speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.” Even as a young boy, Douglass was beginning to gain knowledge on things that slaves were not supposed to know about. For example, his childhood involved “boyhood acts of manipulating white boys into teaching him the alphabet, secretly practicing handwriting in discarded copybooks of his master’s son, and purchasing a copy of The Columbian Orator…” (Ramsey 20). His resourcefulness as a child was representative of just how clever he really was. He learned a lot about the English language without even attending a school, and it shows. For example, in “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” he says:

They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny, and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke, put together, have done… They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs (269). 

Here, Douglass uses strong and aggressive vocabulary as well as his own extensive knowledge on writings of other historical figures and abolitionists to get his point across. He creates the image of a white man as someone who is a “tyrant” and a “man-stealer” to emphasize the idea of slavers being horrible people. Douglass was also well educated on America’s past and present. For example, in “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” he says “Now, take the Constitution… and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it… it will be found to contain principles… entirely hostile to the existence of slavery” (273). Here, Douglass called out the writers of the Constitution and the government on their hypocrisy by saying that some of its clauses seemed to be anti-slavery. Douglass’ knowledge of the Constitution and its principles shows his passion for the Abolitionist movement. He wanted to educate himself on everything about America as much as possible, so people would listen to him. His audience was more likely to listen to someone who knew what they were talking about and that is where his education was a big factor on his speech’s impact.

Frederick Douglass was one of the most influential leaders of the abolitionist movement, but he did not do it all by himself. He received some helpful advice from other leaders of the abolitionist movement such as William Lloyd Garrison. For example, once his anonymity as a fugitive slave was gone, an abolitionist by the name of Wendell Phillips told him that “the whole armory of Northern Law has no shield for you… in your place, I should throw MS into the fire” (Matlack 16). After Douglass heard this, he decided to move to the UK for, where he still campaigned against slavery in his writings. He even gained a following in Britain and they helped pay for his emancipation so that, two years later, he could return to America as a free man. He was taken under the wing of William Lloyd Garrison and together they helped push for an end to slavery. He borrowed a few strategies from Garrison as a way to make his arguments stronger. For example, according to James Matlack, Douglass, like Garrison, was “committed to moral suasion as the way to end slavery” (18). The similarities between the two and their styles of writing and speaking served to benefit the abolitionist movement. Douglass even quotes Garrison in “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” when he says “In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it: God speed the year of jubilee… be driven” (274-275). This quote comes at the very end of his speech, and he quotes an entire poem by William Lloyd Garrison, titled, The Triumph of Freedom. He does this to say that slavery will inevitably come to an end as long as abolitionists keep on fighting it. Frederick Douglass’ influence on the abolitionist movement was greatly improved with the help of other abolitionist leaders.

Frederick Douglass’ education and background as a slave were two things that served to enhance his impact on the abolitionist movement. His personal connection with slavery helped make him someone with an inside opinion that people could trust. He was a well-educated man with a lot of personal opinions on slavery, which was an advantage that not many other abolitionists had. Also, figures like William Lloyd Garrison helped him develop himself as an abolitionist. With all three of these things combined, Frederick Douglass’ speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” was able to have a huge impact on the abolitionist movement.










