An Analysis Of Frederick Douglas's 'What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July'

“American slavery” is a description that Americans rarely hear in today’s society. Since the establishment of the Plymouth Colony, America was intended to be the land of for those who desired and chased after one aspect of life, freedom. The description of the label “American” can be expressed as one who has a story to share about his or her family’s history of various encounters that led their family to the land of America. The description of “slavery” can be expressed as a practice that holds a person as property in bondage under the various tasks the owner sets for the slave. Putting the terms “American” and “slavery” is similar to an oxymoron, two terms contradict each other. Although these terms do contradict each other, American

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Douglass states that “it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the negro race… we are called upon to prove that we are men” as he addressed the crowd (1004). From a slave who gained his freedom and as a human being, being able to prove that a person is not property, but rather one who deserves the rights that was promised to him was the idea that Douglass was trying to convey. Furthermore, Americans continued to have slaves because their labor and production of cash crops allowed owners to obtain profit. For most minor groups in America, freedom for most if not all was acknowledged until the end of the

Civil War in 1865 where slavery was officially abolished. The Civil War was a battle that was fought to “preserve the union,” according to President Lincoln. However, the idea of ending slavery was an underlying facet of the war. With the Union’s win at the end of the war,

The facilities for the people of color were described as lesser quality or nonexistent compared to the white people’s facilities. Langston Hughes, an African American poet, describes Jim Crow Laws as an act of injustice and violation of their human rights in his poem “Merry-Go-Round.” He describes a train ride he encounters and describes his section as the “Jim Crow section.” The “separate but equal” facilities were a way for the white majority to maintain their higher status by manipulating the law. For example, Hughes writes about a colored child at a carnival who wishes to ride a train and the worker stated that the color child must go to the Jim Crow section (qtd. in Hughes 1-6). However, “he states that “there ain’t no back/ to a merry-go-round” (10-11). In other words, society had another way to oppress the minor group that was deemed legal and made the idea of African Americans equate to second class citizens.

Although slavery was abolished after the Civil War, African Americans faced further discrimination from others, specifically the white majority. Even though African