In “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July,” Frederick Douglas explains to his reader the long journey he needed to take in order to become a free man. Frederick even had an advantage over almost every other slave, he was able to learn how to read and write. Without this talent, Douglas could never have realized the horrors of slavery and how badly he was being taken advantage of. Because he had the ability to read and write like a free man, he wanted to be treated like a free man. Therefore, Douglas escaped his master and fled to New York. In New York, he was a free man who had equal rights as a white man. As a man who had lived through the darkness of slavery and knowing how poor the conditions are, he began to willingly criticize slavery. 

In “The Anti-Slavery Project: Linking the Historical and Contemporary,” Joel Quirk reveals some of the horrors that Douglas was exposing. Quirk explains how slaves had terrible living conditions, were over-worked, and poorly fed. Unfortunately, Children weren’t even spared from the horrors of slavery. Owners did not look at children any differently when it came to separating the workload. Children worked the same hours and jobs as adults. Children were often sold, prostituted, and used in pornography as well. In addition, they were also used in illegal activities such as trafficking drugs and human organs. They were forced to carry arms and were taught to defend their smuggles with their lives. Owners didn’t only mistreat the male children but also the females as well. Girls were expected to do the same amount of manual labor as males. They often had to deal with horrid sexual abuses as well from their owners. Owners would use female children for their own sexual purposes and to breed slaves as well. Joel Quirk effectively shows his reader the horrors of slavery that Douglas had escaped from (Quirk, 565-570). 

Douglas’s speeches were impressive enough that he started to gain a following in his beliefs. He eventually was able to perform a speech in front of an audience of New York abolitionists. Douglas believed the meaning of the fourth of July had altered because of the circumstances he was forced to live through.  He addressed how differently the Fourth of July was viewed by a white man and a slave. The Fourth of July was a day of celebration of their independence from the British for the white man. The white man believed the British were taking advantage of them, so they fought for their freedom. They even used slaves to help them in their fights against the British. Even though slaves had helped with the fight for freedom, only the white men had earned their freedom on July 4th, 1776. The slaves still dwelt the horrors of slavery and were prevented from uniting. The white man went to great extents to prevent slaves from uniting and be able to rebel, like poorly educating them and decreasing their living conditions. Whenever the Fourth of July came around, slaves were often confused about what they were even celebrating. They were reminded of how the white men was able to fight for their independence, but were unable to grant them theirs. In addition, slaves aided the white man in his fight for independence and were completely unrecognized when it came to the rewards (Quirk, 565-570). 

John R Howe, Jr. gives a first-hand view of the first stages of slavery in “John Adam’s Views of Slavery.” John Adams, the second President of the United States, even had negative views towards slavery. Unfortunately, John Adams had passes away before the anti-slavery movement truly began to kick off, but he was still able to influence his son John Quincy Adams. Because of his father’s influence, John Quincy Adams was able to play a very prominent role in the anti-slavery movement. John Adams had lived on a farm in a community of New England where slavery was almost nonexistent. John’s profits and livestock was worked for by him and his family. He knew what it meant to grind for your earnings instead of taking advantage of the use of slaves to attain them. Before it even became a constitutional problem, Adams believed slavery was an up and coming issue the United States would need to deal with. He believed that “if the ‘gangrene’ of slavery was not stopped,” the United States could find itself split into two halves: the northern anti-slavery half and the southern pro–slavery half. Unfortunately, the “gangrene” of slavery was not stopped, and the United States almost disintegrated because of it. (Howe, 201-204)  

With the information from “The Anti-Slavery Project: Linking the Historical and Contemporary” by Joel Quirk and “John Adam’s Views of Slavery” by John R. Howe, I can defend Douglas’ belief that slavery was so horrid that it was worth risking his life just to get away from it. I can also now realize how difficult it was for Frederick to learn how to read under the horrible circumstances he faced. As a child, he overcame the intense labor hours and poor living conditions and still managed to learn how to read and write. Even the president of the United States had a hard time dealing with the wraths of slavery. John Adams had plenty to do with the independence of Americans, but unfortunately was not around enough to benefit the African Americans as well. Without these facts, interpreting Frederick’s story would be much more difficult because these facts defend his argument that the Fourth of July isn’t necessarily a celebration for all Americans, just the white ones. The holiday reminds African Americans that they eventually did achieve their freedom, but it also reminds them that their freedom was harder to obtain than the white man’s. They are also reminded how their circumstance were much harsher than the white man, but there is a holiday for the white man’s independence and not theirs. Frederick Douglas’s speech is much easier to understand and enjoy after analyzing the circumstances and time period in which he wrote his speech. 
