Frederick Douglass What Is The Fourth Of July Analysis

Slavery was a dark point in American history for every African-American born at that time. Slaves had no education and was never taught because it would possibly make the slave stronger. Frederick Douglass was a slave who was able to educate himself. He escaped slavery and ran up North. Few years later, he wrote his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, explaining his experiences with slavery. He later than wrote a speech for which was to be announced to the white Christian men of the South explaining . This was announced on the Fourth of July. Douglass was told to tell the audience how he felt about the Fourth Of July. Both The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and “What, to a slave, is the Fourth of July” are absolutely different from each other according to the message it sends to the audience.

Douglass states, “it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin” (1). Douglass alludes to the Tower of Babel when he says “towering up to heaven.” The story of the Tower of Babel is when the Babylonians were trying to build a tower to heaven instead of letting God take over. Douglass explains that whites were “towering up to heaven,” meaning that the whites wanted to take over the slaves and become more of a God-like character. Rhetorical questions are another Douglass spreads his message to his audience through his speech. Douglass writes, “Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty?” (1). Both Douglass and the audience obviously know the answer but Douglass puts an emphasis on how ironic it is that each man is entitled to liberty and justice but slavery is still in