
On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was written by the Founding Fathers. This is one of the most important documents in American History as it declared that the colonies were separate from the British. Although the British no longer ruled the Americans, another form of incredibly unfair treatment of other humans was still present in the new United States and that was slavery. To say that this was “unfair treatment” is a massive understatement. Slave owners looked at their slaves as though they were animals, and ones that didn’t deserve even decent treatment. They made it their goal to make the slaves feel as scared and inhuman as possible. Another important document in American history is the Constitution which set the foundation of rules and rights for the new country. One of the lines in the Constitution is “All men are created equal.” When someone looks at the group of people that wrote the Constitution, he/she can see the “all men” the writers referred to (rich, land-owning, white men). These “all men” did not include many people, such as slaves. Arguably the most notable fugitive slave was Frederick Douglass. Born in Maryland in the early 19th Century, Douglass was a slave himself but also got a first-hand look at the slave trade and all the cruelty and horror that came along with it. Douglass not only escaped from slavery, but also educated himself and told his stories of slavery and how the country needed to reform the way it operated, especially with slavery. On July 5th, 1852 Douglass gave his speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” at the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. During his speech, he discussed how America was not his country but rather the white man’s country, religion in 19th century America, and slavery. Frederick Douglass was born a slave and had to live through treacherous experiences for a long portion of his life until he escaped, and it is these experiences accompanied by other events that happened during his lifetime that influenced his writings and speeches, such as “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?”.

At the time of Douglass giving this speech, the Constitution had been in existence for about 65 years. It was a document that, while looking like it was written for all citizens of the United States, was written for the white man in the country. People sometimes forget that some of the Founding Fathers, especially those from Southern states were slave owners just like most of the rest of the country, and in the 18th Century these men still did not recognize blacks as humans. Due to this, African Americans lacked any rights or even recognition as humans. This view carried through well into the 19th Century. From the 12th to 13th Amendment, there was a gap of 60 years with no national legislation that progressed the rights and even remotely enhanced the lives of African Americans. There were, however, 2 very important rulings/laws that regressed the rights and lifestyles of African Americans in the 1850s. The first was the Fugitive Slave Law which stated that if a runaway slave were caught, he/she had to be returned to his/her master and that all citizens, no matter if those that catch the slaves live in the north or south, had to abide by the law. The next ruling came from the Dred Scott v Sanford in 1857 which said that an African American whose ancestors were slaves in the United States at any point could not be an American citizen and therefore had no standing in a federal court. These decisions as well as the feelings of those considered “citizens” led Douglass to the idea that the Constitution was a “proslavery instrument” (Kantrowitz 2). Though at the time of the speech the Dred Scott decision had not been made, Douglass still spoke like he was not a citizen of the United States. Early in his speech he says, “[The 4th of July] is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom” (Douglass) which is followed later by “The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation’s history” (Douglass). He says “your” as though he does not have the independence or freedom like other Americans nor does he even have the citizenship, like he is isolated from what the people celebrate despite his physical freedom. 

By the time of Douglass’s speech, the North had ceased being slave states and had transitioned into being a home for many activists for the end of slavery and the rights and equal treatment of African Americans. This is not to say there weren’t movements in the South to end slavery but there was a clear division in actions taken between the North and South. In the North, the activists kept hope in the “idea of the United States” (Kantrowitz 3), while in the South many actions and steps were taken towards making slavery even worse and attempting to make freed African Americans slaves once again. One of these back-to-slavery actions was the Fugitive Slave Law seeing as it required everyone in the North and South to return runaway slaves to their owners. However, based on this speech, Douglass does not make many strides himself towards ending slavery (although he was an abolitionist) but rather through his words he conveys to his audience that everyone must make a stand against slavery if there is to be a chance for it to end, especially since many people know that it is a horrible and incorrect practice. He says “I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just” (Douglass). Through this Douglass is saying that he will say whatever it is that he needs to convey to everyone that is not a slave owner that slavery is wrong, wholly wrong, and that there needs to be a change. 

August 1831 featured one of the most notable slave revolts in American history with Nat Turner’s Rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia where Nat Turner, a slave himself, led a group of other rebel slaves on a killing spree of roughly 60 people. 10 years after Nat Turner led his revolt, an enslaved cook aboard the ship Creole led another revolt. “Arguably more successful” (Weinauer 193), this revolt only featured 2 killings as Madison Washington led 17 other slaves to hold the crew hostage and rerouted the boat to Nassau which was under British control. The ship was originally headed to New Orleans where the slaves would be sold, but the British abolished slavery in their Atlantic colonies in 1839 so the fugitive slaves went there where the British eventually declared the slaves to be free men. Out of the 135 slaves on board, 130 became free because of this revolt which gives it the title of most successful slave revolt. It was this second revolt that Frederick Douglass decided to retell. The Confessions of Nat Turner was written in 1831 by Thomas Gray, shortly after Turner’s Rebellion. Ellen Weinauer of The University of Southern Mississippi wrote an article titled “Writing Revolt in the Wake of Nat Turner” in which she discusses how Turner’s Rebellion was an influence on Douglass writing “The Heroic Slave” (1853) where he talks about Madison Washington’s revolt. One connection that Weinauer makes between Douglass and Turner is when she writes “Focusing on Douglass’s ‘The Heroic Slave,’ this essay explores one such retelling and the ways in which Turner’s story might be seen to shadow and shape it” (Weinauer 194). Here Weinauer almost points to a direct correlation between Douglass and Turner’s influence as though the latter is a foundation or outline for how Douglass retells the incident aboard the Creole. Witnesses that were aboard the ship said that Turner and Washington were opposites, with Washington being calm and in charge, unlike Turner who was very anxious. These two characteristics were also possessed by Douglass. As a slave on the verge of escaping, Douglass was very anxious and tense as he knew that he had to execute his plan to perfection and that if he were unsuccessful he may never escape to freedom. However, when he did make it out and began to write and give speeches he became calm because he knew that in order for him to effectively deliver his point, he would have to do so in an orderly fashion that sat with his audience rather than spurring them on.

In his speech, Douglass ties several very integral parts of 19th Century white American life back to slavery. As previously mentioned, Douglass refers to what many Americans have and celebrate (independence, freedom) as their own but not his. Much like when the British ruled the colonies, the slaves are like a new American people and the old Americans are a new British crown. The slaves are treated unimaginably unfairly no matter how they protest and fight back, which tended to make things worse should their efforts go unsuccessful and the Americans just keep making things worse/not improved while a handful of sympathizers try to help the slaves. Another one of Douglass’s topics in his speech is religion, not only in America but also about how the church also promotes slavery. While talking about the slave-trade, Douglass brings it back to God by saying “Everywhere, in this country, if is safe to speak of this foreign slave-trade, as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man” (Douglass). Here he is saying that a person can go anywhere and say that the slave-trade is bad and that also having slaves is bad, but if that person were to go to those same places and say that about God, he/she would put themselves in trouble. Shortly after bringing this up, Douglass puts himself in a vulnerable position when he says “But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors…that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God” (Douglass). Just like the slave owners used the bible as justification for owning slaves, Douglass points out that the church also agrees with them and that owning slaves is part of God’s will and that to truly follow Him one must own slaves. Though Douglass does say these things, he starts off his religion discussion by saying that every man under Heaven knows that slavery is entirely wrong by saying “There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him” (Douglass) referring to the slave owners and saying that the way to get up to Heaven is by not owning slaves. Douglass brings this up first to set the tone and let his audience know where he stands, which is an extremely anti-slavery view along with a view that says the bible does not promote slavery nor is it part of God’s will. 

Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, was one of the most notable and famous abolitionist in American history. Through his experiences as a slave, freed man, and along with other events in his lifetime, Douglass had plenty of influences behind his works. He knew exactly what he was talking about and brought a view that many people did not see, know, or were even able to understand. Laws that were passed in the 1850s as well as slave revolts and rebellions that happened while Douglass was attempting to escape and while he was free played important parts in his speeches, like in “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” where he truly reveals part of his passion and desire to put an end to slavery. Douglass knows that what he is saying is what is right and needed for the country to progress, and his audience can easily reference the revolts of Nat Turner and Madison Washington as examples of some of the things that Douglass talks about. During the opening of Douglass’s speech while he is still talking about America breaking away from British rule, he says “Oppression makes a wise man mad” (Douglass). Though he is directly referring to the “fathers” of those considered Americans, there is an underlying sense of other wise men, slaves, that were oppressed and went mad in the eyes of slave owners and ran away or revolted, much like Douglass himself did. 
