Fredrick Douglass

Eloquently and powerfully, Fredrick Douglass bashed his audience on July 5, 1852. And rightly so. He began with inspiring words about the greatness of the founders of America and how they liberated America from British tyranny. How the forefathers petitioned and demonstrated in the name of their cause, and when all else failed, they revolted and gained their liberty. And July 4th, throughout history, will be remembered as the day of American independence, an will be a day of celebration. But not for a specific community. Slaves mourned while White Americans rejoiced, "your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns...are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy..." Douglass argued that the American celebration of this day was the ultimate hypocrisy. How can a country that prided itself on its freedom and liberty and that "all men are created equal," when it has certain men who are more "equal" than others. There is no clause in the constitution that alienates slaves as degenerative, or inhuman. They were people, just like all other Americans and were entitles to the same rights. But of course, you all already know this, you read the same speech that I did.
I believe that Douglass made this speech as a tribute to slaves all across America at this time. He delivered a moving speech about the hypocrisy of Americans on their most important day of the year. And he did it to shock them into looking at their ways in a new light. If I were a slaveholder who had sat through this speech, I would never be able stand on American soil again without feeling a sense of self-disgust. But even though he does a great job of guilting many people into either giving up their slaves, or simply feeling bad about having them, Douglass leaves room for the white Americans. He says that he is glad that our nation is young, so that it has time to reform and improve itself.