In Frederick Douglass’ speech What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, which was given in 1852, slavery was still a heavy part of American culture and particularly in the South and Douglass himself was an escaped slave. As a young boy Douglass taught himself to read and write and do everything that the white man that owned him could also do. This led Douglass to wonder more and more as the years passed as to why he is not also free if there is no difference in ability between the free white man and himself. When Douglass became around eighteen years old he plotted his escape to the north where slavery was not as heavily approved of and was rarely used and needed. After he escaped and became a free man he became one of the biggest abolitionists against slavery in American History and joined the Anti-Slavery Society. The time that this speech was given was in the year of 1952 and the slave debate was starting to heat up and eventually sparked the Civil War nine years later in 1961. Douglass addressed the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester as he was addressing an audience that was chasing the same goal that he was; abolishing slavery. Douglass speaks about how the Declaration of Independence is a great piece of American Literature that promotes freedom and equality for all. He then points to the irony of the great document because it is ironic that there is such an institution of slavery if the ratifying document of the land states that all men are equal. Are slaves then not people? There are many key historical events that are mentioned throughout Douglass’ speech that need to be understood to fully understand his speech. These historical events helped influence and motivate the things that Douglass spoke about. In 1950 the Fugitive Slave Law essentially kept the repulsive institution of slavery alive in America and the stoppage of the slave trade seemed to increase the demand for slaves to be returned as property to their owners. By speaking of the irony in Declaration of Independence, Frederick Douglass illustrates the lack of equality for slaves which is seen through the historical events that influences Douglass’ speech. 

One major historical event that influenced Douglass to speak out about the lack of equality and irony in the Declaration of independence was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1950. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1950 declared that the Federal Government had a responsibility to return escaped slaves from the South to their rightful owners. Abolitionists saw this new piece of legislature as a way to further declare slaves as property, as Douglass states, “In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this Fugitive Slave Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation” (Douglass 268). The supreme law of the land made it so that it is the national responsibility of the national government to return slaves to their owners as property. Slavery was becoming a very back and forth debate in the United States at this time period and the creators of this law did not want to make this legislation sound any worse than it had to be. This is shown in The Fugitive Slave Law: A Double Paradox when Larry Gara states, “Article IV, Section Two, of the Constitution clearly implied that fugitives from labor who escaped into another state should be delivered to their masters, though the word "slave" was carefully avoided” (Gara 231). Douglass again goes to see the irony in this because it makes it seem as if the legislators know that the law they are writing is wrong. If they can’t say the word slave because they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings and go against the Declaration of Independence, then why even write the law in the first place. Douglass points this out and connects it all back to the irony of the Declaration of Independence. There is simply no equality between the slaves and the white man yet the Declaration says every man is created equal. Are slaves not people? By showing the irony of the Declaration, this question is what Douglass is continuing to get his audience to believe; that based off the laws and legislation of the United States, slaves are considered property and not people.   

Another historical event that the reader must be able to fully understand is the abolition of the Slave Trade to America and how this influenced Douglass’ writing greatly. The abolition of the Slave Trade from Africa in 1807 meant that there were no more slaves to continually replace the slaves that die off or escape, however there was some illegal slave trading for about fifty years after. The United States was one of the last countries to abolish the slave trade, as Douglass states, “I doubt if there be another nation on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute book” (Douglass 268). America also was one of the last countries to think of slaves as property instead of people. The only way to get more slaves was to make the current slaves reproduce. This also led to more rapes of female slaves by their owners, so that the owner could continue to have slave labor done. We see the desperation of southern plantation owners to create more slaves when Edward Baptist states, “Women of color, and black communities in general, waged constant rhetorical and physical battles against both the sexual assaults of white men and white ideas about black people” (Baptist 1622). Douglass continues to talk about the wickedness that America has with its old-fashioned ways of slavery and the repulsiveness to rape a female who is known as property solely to continue to have slave labor. The Declaration states all men are created equal, and Douglass again points back to the irony in the fact that slaves are not considered equal or else they would not be subjects of breeding after the abolition of the slave trade. The gruesome practice of breeding slaves points to the fact that slaves were still far from equal after the slave trade was abolished. Women were degraded to be in a worse place than they were as a slave: a compromised slave. Yet the declaration still states that all men are created equal. Are slaves not people? Without the slave trade slaves became no more of a person in the minds of whites.  

The irony of equality in the Declaration of Independence is illustrated through historical references that Douglass mentions throughout his speech. Slavery in America ultimately led to the abolition movement which then led to the Civil War. Starting even before the ending of the Slave Trade in 1807, slavery was a very debated topic which after years of buildup led to the Civil War. Douglass just points out the inequality that the people associated with the slaves, and going through slavery himself, he knows the frustrations of being someone else’s property. Douglass continues throughout his entire speech to make the reader wonder if the slave supporters know what they are doing is wrong. He believes that the white man and slave are equal in every physical and mental way. Douglass also believes that the white man knows this to be true but will not acknowledge it because of the loss of personal gain. For a white man, slaves are not people, but property. 
