 ‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July’ is the title of Fredrick Douglass’s famous speech given in front of the Rochester Ladies Antislavery Society on July 5th, 1852 in Rochester, New York. As an African American born into slavery, Douglass witnessed and lived out first-hand the horrors that slavery entailed. In 1838, he escaped from his master in Baltimore and found freedom. Instead of hiding in fear, he used his newfound freedom, his experience as slave, and his fine-tuned rhetorical skills to help the abolitionist movement. This paper shows how a cultural context of the oppression of African Americans influences the story and the author. This is shown through two articles that both display the issues of slavery in the 19th century.

‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July’ is a speech given by Fredrick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was a huge part of the abolitionist movement. Originally born a slave, Frederick Douglass had seen many horrors in his lifetime and had a lot to overcome. His speech reflects the sentiments he has in regards to slavery. Douglass begins his speech by first commending the Founding Fathers on the job they did on starting a great nation. He also addresses the crowd and lets them know of his nerves and how he believes he is an equal among his peers.He knows he is not treated as an equal ,or even viewed as an equal by anyone else, but he wants others to start viewing him as such. Although he might not have been viewed as such ,he still perceived himself to be equal. He then begins to mention the American Revolution; in its very beginnings, it was viewed more as treason than the patriotic act it was considered after the Revolution. He believes that the case is the same for the abolitionist movement. He believes that change is necessary and that it is time for blacks to be viewed as equals to whites and to abolish slavery once and for all. 

The ideas of equality and abolition do not stop with Frederick Douglass’s speech. 

These ideas were felt by countless others as well. In a review of “On the Edge of Freedom: The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1820-1870 by David G. Smith, and A Self-Evident Lie: Southern Slavery and the Threat to American Freedom by Jeremy J. Tewell”, Larry A. Greene talks about the self-evident lie in the Declaration of Independence; it says all men are created equal, but clearly that statement does not pertain to “inferior” races. This lie caught up with the times as African Americans began to demand they be given civil rights demanding rights. Winning over public northern opinion was the key to the abolitionist movement.The progressive north would be pivotal point in spreading these ideals. Anti-slavery activists filled the areas around southern Pennsylvania consisting of “Whigs, Republicans, and democrats”(Greene 1).They were very influential, and most areas were filled with the Underground Railroad. They fought for the idea of “universal liberty” and rights for all persons against those who opposed antislavery movements (Greene 1). This is exactly what Frederick Douglass was doing in the North. He was letting the people know that a change was needed, and he did this by winning over the people in the North, who were more open to these changes than the people in the South. The North was a base point for Fredrick Douglass as it provided a platform for him to voice his ideas and influence a great many people, to change the way people think, and to help a movement.

Twenty years before Frederick Douglass gave his speech, people were still trying to get rights for themselves. According to Jane H. and William H. Pease in “Ends, Means, and Attitudes: Black-White Conflict in the Antislavery Movement,” these brave African Americans did this by working “with white dominated anti-slavery organizations,” they “chose means which demonstrated black self-sufficiency and pursued programs which stressed achieving full civil rights for free blacks as much as liberating the enslaved” (Pease 1). This is another example of people fighting for the abolition of slavery. The idea of this excerpt was that for an extended period of time, African Americans were trying to fight for their rights, though it wasn’t very effective. Fredrick Douglass changed that; he was the fuel that they needed to gain a larger audience and to hear their voices. It was Douglass who instigated this movement and the cultures around him influenced him to make this speech.

This paper investigates the significance of Frederick Douglass’s “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July” speech and the relevance the historical context of the time. This state of our country in the time of this speech was a time that called for change, and Frederick Douglass helped to instigate this change through his speech, which reignited in the hearts and minds of thousands and helped spark a change for the future.
