The United States of America has an inglorious chapter in the nation’s history. The dark side of the past of America starts with the slavery. African Americans were beaten and disrespected, which is against humanity. Fredrick Douglass, as half African American slave and half white land owner, who luckily got out of the harm of slavery, was unfortunately still deprived of his American rights due to his skin tone. Because of the historical disrespect that African Americans received, Fredrick Douglass conducted his speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” to address the inhumane treatment that the slaves received and how they feel towards white Americans.  This paper focuses on the hypocrisy of white Americans and how they treated the African American slaves.

In the 19th century, the societal distance between the white Americans and the African American slaves was extremely evident. In Fredrick Douglass’s speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” he begins his speech by saying, “…The distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable- and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight,” (Douglass 256). He says this as an insight of what he’s talking about in his speech. He proceeds to say that the purpose of the Fourth of July is to celebrate the American’s victory against the British crown to achieve independence , which is why Americans celebrate this holiday. Douglass talks about how the “the Founding Fathers” wanted to separate from the British Crown. In addition, he says, “They succeeded… the freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may celebrate this anniversary,” (259). This  emphasizes a lot of “you” and “yours” to show the separation between the African Americans and white Americans. He goes on to say that to a slave, or any African American treated with disrespect, arguing “It is a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim,” (265), and basically stating that America is a hypocrite: treating the slaves worse than the British Crown treated colonists but refusing to allow slaves to be free. This hypocrisy just increases the distance between white Americans and the African Americans. Throughout Douglass’s speech, he constantly tries to show to American citizens just how terribly whites are treating slaves and that it’s hypocritical for American’s to celebrate their freedom by refuting to give the slaves their own freedom, resulting in increasing distance between the two. 

From the beginning African American slaves were treated terribly. Taken from their homes, shoved into small cramped spaces on large ships, transported across the Atlantic Ocean, they were placed into slavery here in America. “Slavery was the main source of labor in the new and upcoming America” (Slavery in America 49). Slaves were treated as property, coming as a part of the house if someone bought them. They were even put on sale for people to buy. Fredrick Douglass had a firsthand glance at this, originally being a slave. He uses the way that slaves are treated to reiterate his point. The colonies were just merely taxed with no representation, yet white Americans can’t even grant slaves freedom and they treat them like animals. That is why Douglass believes that Americans are hypocritical and just shows why there is distance between them.  

On December 6, 1865, Slavery officially ended with the ratification of the 13th amendment. The 13th amendment states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Even though slavery may have formally ended in 1865, African Americans were still badly treated into the present. In the early 20th century, they were put into the slums of the cities because the whites didn’t believe they were actually human. The African Americans were segregated from the white Americans. They couldn’t use white’s toilets; they couldn’t use white’s water fountains. “In sixteen metropolitan areas that house one-third of the nation’s black population, racial separation is so intense that some would consider it hyper-segregation,” (American Apartheid 81). Even though Fredrick Douglass’s speech took place in the 19th century, what he spoke about is still relevant in the 20th century. American’s were still hypocritical even after the slaves received their “freedom.” American’s still ridiculed them and tormented them even once they were free people.

Since the founding of the nation, America has shown the hypocrisy and great distance between whites and blacks. This paper examines Fredrick Douglass’s famous speech. Through research, the historical culture of American’s towards African Americans at the time needed to be addressed and that’s exactly what he did.  He pointed out the hypocrisy of the American people and how they distanced themselves from African Americans and gave very good points as to why it needed to change. Fredrick Douglass, a brave man, stood up for what he believed in and conducted a great speech to back that.   
